Spirits
by drewmaster
Summary: So you find that you've learned some things about life and you kind of think that's all there is to know. It never works that way. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something new might just enter the picture. Are you prepared to handle it?
1. Chapter 1

**This is the third part of the series. This time, there is a new story added to this crossover series. Not only is it a crossover between My Life As A Teenage Robot and Megaman X, but I'm now adding Samurai Shodown (Samurai Spirits for those unfamiliar with the English name) to the series.**

**Some of you may be wondering how this can possibly make sense. Well, there are many complications involved when dealing with a series where the characters were alive during the 1700s, but there are also some elements to the story that allows this story make sense. You will see as you read. Look at it this way; huge dimensional portals seem to make sense, then why not this? I know that's not enough of an explanation, but I don't want to spoil it for you guys right away.**

**I will let you all in on one thing before you read. This story will go deeper into religion than the previous two stories. I don't want to totally surprise you all with anything that may make some feel uncomfortable, so I'm letting you know now so you can take some time to brace yourselves because I know this is a touchy subject.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the official My Life as a Teenage Robot, Megaman X, or Samurai Shodown characters. Any non-official characters are mine.**

**Oh yes, and by the way. I know there are quite a lot of people out there that don't really even know what Samurai Showdown is. I was made aware of this more recently than ever before. I personally found it to be very surprising. All I can really tell you to do is use a Google search for the series and the characters I'm using for the story. You can also look up gameplay videos on Youtube for this as well to give you a visual representation. The same goes for the Megaman X series in case you're having trouble with that as well.**

* * *

**Disclaimer Update**

**I feel like this message I'm writing to those who read my Mlaatr stories is long overdue. I ask that anyone who reads this disclaimer to take what I'm about to say very seriously. This is a matter of spiritual importance. Please listen.**

***sigh***

**The reason I haven't updated my story in such a long time isn't entirely because of the stresses of life like many other disclaimers you've probably read. Also, I do plan to continue this story to put your minds at ease. At first, I hit a point where I was nearly running out of ideas on how to continue the story. I ran into what people would usually call a writer's block. I realized over time it wasn't nearly that simple. It turns out that some of the things I began to realize was about to make me take these stories down.**

**First, you have to realize that the seriousness of these stories has been a journey for me. When I was writing Frail Humanity, back then, I was still an agnotstic. For those of you who don't know, an agnostic is a person who, unlike an atheist who will deliberately claim that God doesn't exist, and agnostic won't claim either side of the God argument and anchors themselves in a middle-ground uncertainty zone. For me, I used to say "I don't know if God does exist or whether or not he doesn't. I honestly do not know, so until I figure that out, I refuse to make a final decision and pick a side." So you might ask yourselves, "So then, drewmaster, how on earth did you figure these stories would fit together if you became a Christian sometime in the middle of these stories?" Good question. If you recall, in Frail Humanity, Jenny took the time out to talk about God before rearranging the face of that abandoned warehouse area by slamming her fists into ground over and over again. She was wondering if there was a God and where her place in all this was. I was also asking these same questions at the time. So the entire time I spent writing these stories, I've been on a spiritual journey. If you noticed, in Mlaatr: Maverick Hunter X, I addressed the God issue a lot more. By that time, I had already been a Christian for a while. I decided to save Spirits for when I would dive much deeper into the subject of God.**

**Now that I got you guys on the same page as me, here's the tricky part. I know that God exists, but robots having a spirit inside of them and the idea of other dimensions filled with humans like us also having spirits the way we do and then the idea of a bible basically identical to ours existing in another dimension are three major problems with this story. In the past couple of years, I've read and studied the bible much more than I ever have before. One, other dimensions existing besides ours, heaven, hell, and a possible holding/waiting place I think the bible possibly mentions (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), are places, to my knowledge, aren't even vaguely mentioned in the bible (correct me on that one too if you can). Two, Jesus came here to this planet. It's an interesting thought to wonder if Jesus existed on many different versions of Earth in different dimensions all at the same time, but since the bible doesn't mention that, how can we think there could be a bible in those places as well? Also, in the case of God deciding to place a spirit of some kind into a robot body giving it life is possible. God can do anything he wants to. The issue is whether or not he would. I cannot see a reason for him doing that in reality. Who here knows, all these things could be possible, but there's no mention of these ever so fascinating possibilities in the bible to my knowledge.**

**These things almost made me take my stories down because as a Christian, I wouldn't want to confuse someone's spirituality and damage their relationship with God. I would not want that blood on my hands. So here's the thing. You definitely should take God and Jesus and what they have done for us very seriously. But just like I was confusing myself with my own theories about robots and such, I can see how I could possibly confuse others. Unless God himself tells us that robots can have life in his eyes, for now, do not take that seriously at all, nor the other two theories. Instead, view the robots and their dilemmas in my stories as a symbolic representation of what we as humans go through struggling to make sense of our place in the grand scheme of things.**

**So now, my purpose for these stories besides entertainment is to share my thoughts on spiritual growth and understanding from angles that people usually don't seem to think or talk about.**

**And one last thing. This is so very important. Whenever you guys write stories involving spirituality, especially if you decide to make Jesus a part of it, be ever so very careful not change what the bible says. In fact, don't change what it says at all. I don't remember where the verse is, but I believe it says something like "cursed are those who would add to or take away from the scriptures." I'm not sure of the exact wording of that verse. In my case, I did not actually change what the bible says. In Jenny's world, their bible is exactly identical to ours. In fact, now that I think of it, I need to actually change that part where the website Jenny was looking at said that there were slight differences between the bible in both world's. I'm going to say that they are identical. If I don't, that's basically like suggesting that I don't agree with certain things written in our own bible. This is exactly what I'm trying to get you guys to see. It's easy to make these kinds of mistakes if you're not thinking with a clear mind at the time. I will correct that mistake for the sake of the readers and for God's glory.**

* * *

A year and eight months had passed since Sigma's defeat. Many thorough investigations and searches have been done to insure that Sigma was nowhere to be found. As far as anyone could tell, he surely no longer existed.

Many things changed in both worlds, so much so, that many people questioned if they were progressing too quickly. There wasn't much that made it seem as though anything bad would come of what they were doing, so the "off switch," so to speak, was not seriously considered.

A great amount of world hunger was solved. Countries were no longer at war with each other so national boundary lines were expected, in the near future, by many "experts" to be erased, and that all countries would soon become one superpower. Many thought that would make for a great utopia, but most were afraid to make such a bold move. Remembering the so-called utopia Sigma was working towards scared people to the point where they became worried that someone somewhere may try to take advantage of that establishment and take Sigma's place as an "all-powerful" dictator.

The only reason this opinion was taken seriously as a "legitimate" concern was because so many people voiced it, and not solely because Sigma recently tried to take over. If it were only a few people, it would have been written off by the majority as a conspiracy theory.

There were many new laws governing travel between the two worlds for reasons such as the amount of energy required to maintain stable travel or to open smaller private portals, reasons to be cleared of suspicion and various other reasons.

The teleportation technology that people from the other world were used to was also introduced to Jenny's world. Of course, use of this technology was restricted heavily to avoid conflicts and crises. The only people who actually had the opportunity to use it regularly were high ranking officials, police, military, etc. The average person was usually at least a little bit afraid of using it anyway.

All things considered, things seemed to be going quite well.

* * *

It was early in the morning. Both Vexus and Zero were walking together discussing something they heard in the news the night before.

"But you know what's so funny about that though. They asked 'Will your lettuce be contaminated? Find out at 11," Zero commented.

Vexus burst out laughing because she knew exactly where Zero was going with this.

"I mean…seriously…find out at 11? It's 5:34 in the afternoon. I could take a chance and eat that lettuce and die before 11. If it's so important, shouldn't they let us know right away? But, of course, they're much more concerned about their station's ratings than a few human lives," Zero ranted with a slight sarcastic grin on his face.

"It really is quite ridiculous. They really do manage to get on my nerves with that kind of…" Vexus said before she turned her head and paused for a moment.

Zero waited for her.

First, Vexus turned her head towards Zero, slowly started walking again, and then said "You know how sometimes you see things out of the corner of your eye?"

"Yeah," Zero asked in a curious tone.

Vexus kept looking back as she was walking, and then she said "That looked like…a ghost or…something. It's completely gone now. What on Earth? I've seen many things out of the corner of my eye, but nothing like that."

"Not that I'm worried, but even if it's not just a figment of your imagination, we don't have time to stick around. Now don't look at me like that. I don't think you're crazy, but I do know that I keep forgetting to mention that you haven't had any maintenance done on your eyes in quite a while," Zero pointed out.

"You know what; you're actually right. I keep putting it off. That might just be the reason I saw that…whatever that was. That makes me feel a whole lot better. I'll get it done sometime tomorrow," Vexus replied.

Zero placed his left hand on her left shoulder and said "All right then. But we really should try to speed up or we'll be late."

As they both sped up to a jogging pace, a man sitting on a lawn chair said in a volume that could not easily be heard from a distance "Get your eyes checked? I'm glad we don't have to have our eyes operated on or replaced every few years or so. I gotta admit though, that Vexus is a hottie. Too bad Zero got to her first."

It's a good thing to note that Vexus was released from custody about three months earlier. Her performance and demeanor managed to convince the majority of people to agree to let her roam free. If anything, there's quite a lot of reploid officers patrolling the streets, and every one of them has a large database of past criminals. She promised to help rebuild, but since there are so many reploid and mechanilloid workers helping out, it was decided that about seventeen months of service was enough. It was thought to be unreasonable to expect someone to rebuild the whole world.

At first, Zero wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about Vexus as Vexus was about Zero. He soon grew to like her though. Now they have quite a healthy relationship.

* * *

Vexus and Zero finally made it to their destination. It was a hotel suite. Many of their friends were there as well. When they finally entered the living room, Zero's eyes widened with surprise.

"It's you. You're the guy that helped us against Sigma. You were the last person I'd expect the anonymous host to be," Zero said.

As soon as the doors closed, the robot said "Well, now that you all have arrived, it's finally time I introduce myself. Oh, and please find yourselves a seat if you prefer. My real name is Terrance Rosalina. Please don't ask why both my Argentinean parents decided to name me Terrance. You all can call me Fox instead. Silver Fox is my code name. Oh yes, and please, no formalities."

"Okay then, Fox, what I wanna know, is why you took so long to meet with us," Angel asked.

"Is she always this direct, and does she always have an attitude?" Fox asked.

Angel raised her voice and said "You're treading on thi…"

XJ6 cut her off by grabbing her arm, and then said "Come on, Angel. Try to be calm."

Angel took a deep breath and folded her arms.

"Okay then, I'll tell you. Even if I wanted to, it wasn't up to me. I had to get clearance for this meeting first. The reason I wasn't given clearance was for three reasons. One: a lot of time was spent improving my body. Two: I spent a lot of time in training. And three: I've spent a lot of time investigating those other signals you detected, Jennifer," Fox explained.

"Umm…you mean those two from Venus and that one from the orbit of Saturn? I didn't know you were capable of going into outer space," Jenny replied.

"I was able to at the time I helped you guys out, but there was no need to demonstrate that to you. Of course, the only reason that is a surprise is because that makes me the first me the first human, in this world, to be outfitted and modified to fly around in outer space or other such uninhabitable environments for human beings. If I'm not mistaken, X, your world has not yet produced such a human yet, has it?" Fox asked.

X grinned, and then replied "I guess that makes you the first of both worlds."

"Well, there you have it, Angel. In short, I was busy," Fox said.

"I have another question for you. Are you actually in there, behind that helmet?" Angel asked.

"Good question. As I told you back then, this body is more of a decoy. The body you're seeing now looks identical to the original, and can fight as well as you saw back then, but the real me is far away from here controlling this body. This body has no organics; the same as the previous one. I do need to mention that there was no possible way I could control this decoy while my real body is on Venus or some other faraway place. I need to be still and concentrate as if I'm playing a video game to control this decoy. I'm using this decoy now, honestly, in case you guys don't trust me and one of you decides to attack me. The world trusts you all, but I'm cautious around everyone. It's nothing personal. Also, when I investigated those other signals, on Venus, all I found was a bunch of supplies that had been mostly eroded away by the acidic atmosphere of the planet. Saturn on the other hand, I found what looked like a possible Sigma body. Before you become alarmed, it wasn't inhabited at all, and just to be safe, we decided to completely incinerate all computer components. I brought the shell back to Earth, dismantled it, and then thoroughly scanned it to make sure there was nothing Sigma could possibly use to make that body inhabitable even if he was somehow still alive out there searching for a body. Only after we were sure it was only a shell did we reassemble it. It's really tough metal. That's why we didn't destroy it. And no, I wasn't told to tell you some lie to cover up some nasty little secret like trying to use his technology to our advantage for an attempt at world domination. We've seen too many movies already where this kind of thing always backfires. If that's not enough, we know that if we did, and Sigma found a way into the machine or whatever it is that we could've made, he would've just tried to destroy us. His shell is more of a wall mantel if anything," Fox explained.

"You seem definitely like you have nothing to hide, so that's good. What branch of the military do you work for anyway?" Zero asked.

"Army: Special Weapons Division. You're probably wondering why I would want to be known only as a weapon. I don't really mind. Of course, that's what the general public would think of me if they knew the branch I worked for. I honestly don't care about their limited jump-to-conclusions opinions. I was in a terrible accident and could not afford my own operation. I decided to undergo this operation for no monetary compensation instead under the agreement that I would serve in the military for a certain length of time. I always wanted to be a soldier in a war as a kid, so it was pretty good arrangement for me. I actually like my situation. Not only that, during my time in service, I managed to amass a pretty large fortune by a means which I do not intend to disclose. Since I do not owe the military any money because of the no monetary compensation agreement, I can be repaired and improved as many times as I wish without ever paying out of my own pocket. That's how I was able to afford this suite," Fox explained.

"Wow! What a story? And none of us had any idea you ever existed before Sigma," XJ5 said.

"You'd be surprised just how many incredible stories you'd find out there, even belonging to the most unlikely people. I happened to be a cyborg and that's why people are curious to know my story. The average person usually writes most people off as uninteresting because they somehow feel as though because they look average, that they assume that they don't have much of anything worth saying, or that they don't have much to offer of any real worth. I understand though that peoples' minds are naturally inclined to try to only pay attention to what they consider to be the important things. People, unfortunately, also get dragged into that category. It's just like the difference between short term and long term memory. It's all about the important things. I understand that our minds can't be expected to remember and pay attention to every single detail, but I also realize that we are all capable of memorizing and paying attention to a lot more things than we think we can. Most people just don't even try. The lot of those kind of people are self-important dickheads. I'm not targeting anyone in this room, but if any of you felt offended on a personal level, then you are guilty as being one of those people and just don't want the rest of the world to know it. You know what; forget I said any of that. I'm sorry about ranting like this. I just see a lot of bullshit in this world that people commit regularly that no one does anything about or even says anything about," Fox replied.

"Unfortunately, I used to be like that, so what you said did strike a bad nerve, but I'm not gonna hold it against you. Quite frankly, you don't even know us very well yet anyway. I'm just glad you didn't try to assume that any of us in particular was like that," Jenny responded.

"You're right. I didn't try to assume that. It's not a good idea to assume things about anyone. For instance; when I helped you guys out, I didn't assume that Sigma was an evil tyrant. I already knew that. Hell, everybody already knew that. I didn't assume X knew what he was doing when he suggested that battle plan to me. I already knew ahead of time that he was a tactical genius based on the reports. In the current situation though, you can't tell these things just by looking at a person," Fox said.

"So then, is there any other reason in particular you called us all here?" Melody asked.

"Reason in particular?" Fox asked.

"What I mean to say is; did you have any other major things or situations to discuss with us?" Melody asked.

"Not really. Am I correct in thinking that you're wondering why I would spend all this money on this expensive suite just to have a few minutes of chat time with you all?" Fox asked.

"Well, this does seem to be a little unnecessary. You could've just called to have this short of a chat with us," Melody asked.

"Well, here's the thing. I wasn't actually planning on this event being so short. There are plenty of things that can be done or talked about while we're here. You can stay as long as you like is what I mean. Also…it seems to me that none of you are used to such luxurious surroundings. I'm sorry. You were once a queen, Vexus. This is probably nothing compared to what you're used to. The point is that I did all this for you guys. You all risked your lives against one of the greatest threats the world has ever seen, but not a single one of you was given an all expense paid vacation or anything of the sort. I know this because I happen to know the man in charge of tracking your histories. He's not spying on your personal lives. He only knows strictly what is reported to him. Even I don't know how they know, so don't bother asking. This here is only the living room. Through those doors over there is the rest of the suite. It's large enough and even has enough bedrooms for every one of you to spend the night here if you wish. I did go through the trouble of finding out that none of you has anything of major importance on your schedules for at least the next week. In the end, it's up to you," Fox replied.

"I don't mind. It seems like a pretty good deal to me. Only one issue though. That empty shell doesn't seem like much of a host," Jenny said.

"I just wanted to make sure you all trusted me well enough before I decided to show myself. I can't defend myself against someone as powerful as the Maverick Hunters or Jennifer there. I'm not quite that strong," Fox explained.

"Isn't it a little extreme to think we might attack you?" XJ4 asked.

"Quite simply, I know your public faces, but I don't know your private faces. How long did it take for the general public to trust all of you?" Fox asked.

"You made a good point. If anything though, I think you might be suffering from certain irrational fears or paranoia," Zero replied.

"I guess you're right. Truth is; I used to get bullied a lot back when I was a normal human in high school. That sort of thing stays with you forever," Fox explained.

"Tell me about it. Me and Jenny both know that story all too well. Good thing we graduated recently. We don't have to worry about that anymore," Sheldon added.

"You mean to tell me that humans were bold enough to try to bully a robot obviously strong enough to dismantle them with ease?" Fox asked.

"In general, humans have a strange tendency to challenge everything that challenges their own self-imposed authority or their ego. The simplest example I can think of is when there's a sign posted that says 'don't do something.' They feel like they've been challenged, so they challenge it back because usually nothing ever happens to them. If a sign said 'do not enter,' and they entered anyway, and they got a bullet shot into their leg, they would probably never challenge those signs again," Sheldon explained.

"If Jennifer had poked one of them in the neck or put one of their eyes out, and they survived it, they'd have to be stupid to challenge her again. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I will be arriving shortly. I'm on a helicopter as we speak. You can't tell because the compartment is sound proofed," Fox said.

"So, you're saying you trust us now?" Sheldon asked.

"I feel like I trust you well enough based on our time spent together so far. Well, I've just landed…it's a fast helicopter. Anyway, I will open the doors for you in a moment. In the mean time, this body will be shutting down," Fox said before that body assumed a neutral position.

Everyone stood up and they all walked over to the doors. As soon as the doors opened, the real Fox pulled off his helmet revealing his human face.

With a slight grin, he asked "Startled? This is what happens when you try to fuse robotics with flesh and try to keep me looking somewhat human at the same time. My unnaturally colored skin and all these circuits and the few wires connected to my face are what makes me looks this way and are the price I pay for wanting to continue to live. Both my eyes are also false though they look normal. Don't worry about my health or whether or not I'm self-conscious. I've learned to deal with it quite well and I'm pretty content. Please; come right in."

He turned and walked followed somewhat hesitantly by the others. He began showing them the entirety of the suite. They were quite impressed by its luxuriousness and they were very grateful for his gesture.


	2. Chapter 2

During the next few weeks, there had been an increasing number of people who could've sworn they'd seen ghosts. Only, as usual, the majority thought it was merely hype built around an urban legend. The fact that so many described their experience in the same manner led the public to believe that this hype was organized over the internet.

Besides; what can a ghost possibly do that would be a real cause for alarm?

* * *

Jenny sat at her mother's main computer with many wires connected to the back of her head.

As Ms. Wakeman walked in through the door, she said "The last time you used my computer you had the same serious look on your face."

"Well…hold on a sec…here's the thing; I doubt anyone else has come up with this theory, but about those ghost sightings…yeah…wait…there it is. I'll stop right there for the time being. As you know mom, those weird dreams I had back then; I never told you this, but they never stopped totally. I'm not finished. I've seen a lot of weird things in my dreams, but I haven't seen anything like what those people have been describing. However, I do have a slightly unsettling feeling about it all. The theory I do have is what if Sigma was somehow still alive and he's found a way to make weird holographic images to scare people? It's just a thought. I'm accessing the Maverick Hunter artificial intelligence database from here and asking it if it thinks the two could possibly be related. I know this is stressful, but if he is still alive, it'd be safer to take him down before he has the chance to make it back on his feet," Jenny explained.

Ms. Wakeman sighed and said "At least you've been taking your global defense work seriously all this time, even without a major enemy to deal with. Sigma was such a problem, that honestly, I wish your theory were totally bogus sounding so I could scold you for being irrational. If it weren't for the advanced technology in this world, your theory would prove groundless."

"Oh, believe me. I wish it were totally groundless. The artificial intelligence database also agrees with me that it could all be possible provided Sigma managed to somehow survive. The good news is that it says that it's highly unlikely because Sigma has never been known to operate this way especially since he would likely have already guessed that one of us would've theorized this already because of the high likelihood of an ordinary human child also being able to quickly think up such a theory. With that in mind, the database has little reason to believe that most of the other Maverick Hunters haven't already thought up this theory on their own, but they chose not to bring this to the database's attention because they don't think Sigma would make such a childish mistake. That's good news for me. I was explaining that to you as it was telling me its thoughts. But even with all that aside, I still have an unsettling feeling about all this. I tried using my sensors to try and detect anomalies, but I'm not picking up anything of significance: just the usual energy fluctuations. The problem is…" Jenny said and then stopped in mid sentence.

"I think there's something else you haven't told me," Ms. Wakeman guessed.

"It's complicated. For well over a year now, I've been attempting using my sensors to sense everything I can possibly sense within my zone. I spend a few hours or so on it regularly. My slowly adjusting sensors being stressed to the limit has actually over time allowed me develop ways of increasing the spread of my zone. It sounds strange, but I've developed this nearly intoxicating need to try to understand the universe on a much deeper level. It's very much like what monks do when they meditate. I would also listen to everything I could hear as well at the same time. I would also think long and hard about everything that's happened in my life and the history of the world. I've realized some pretty interesting things while doing this, but the most relevant thing I realized is probably the most startling. I eventually stopped focusing so heavily on what I could make out about what my sensors could pick up and started focusing on what I knew my sensors could not. You didn't design me to sense every energy form known to man, so I downloaded hundreds of thousands of pages worth of detailed information on many types of energies I'm not equipped to sense. You didn't design me that way because you didn't see a need, but over time, my sensors did adjust to be able to sense them. Here's the strangest part about it all. Besides energies that haven't been discovered, I becoming more and more convinced that there is something else out there, but I don't know what. It doesn't seem anything like a conventional energy source. This sounds strange, but I can't actually sense that this 'force' is actually there, but I've noticed it for too long to dismiss it. Yeah, I know. How can I know if I can't sense it, right? The thing is; I notice it all the time now without even having to try. It's as if there is a gap…or rather…it's an energy source that can't be detected or analyzed using any means ever attempted. But it feels like there's so much more to it that I could ever imagine. You likely never picked up on it, but it's all around us. It's probably everywhere," Jenny explained.

A moment later, Ms. Wakeman said "I know you know me well enough by now not to even bring something highly unusual like this to my attention unless you were truly convinced of your own words. Many outrageous theories have been brought to my attention before: many I have accepted and many I have rejected with extreme prejudice. I have yet to be told something this outrageous before. You know my history very well, and with that, I will analyze your information only because you are telling me this with the utmost seriousness."

"Oh, believe me. I am fully aware of how farfetched this all sounds. It sounds like I'm stressed out to the point where I've started trying to invent reasons to be afraid of some unforeseeable threat. It sounds like I'm going crazy. If you remember, I've been quite a lot happier than I used to be for quite a while now. I only started becoming worried about this phenomenon within the past couple of months. In all seriousness, they way I want this to turn out, is for you to prove me wrong. I don't want another major crisis," Jenny replied.

"You're worried this phenomenon might turn out to be something destructive?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"It's probably just the fear of not knowing, but this phenomenon is what is causing the unsettling feeling," Jenny answered.

"All right, fine. I will give it a thorough investigation. You were right about people from another dimension without even knowing it, so what's to say you're wrong about this. I have noticed that when you're this worried about something, you're almost always right. Oh yes, I did mean to ask you what exactly you were originally looking for when you started using your sensors in such a bizarre manner," Ms. Wakeman said.

"I was looking for everything," Jenny answered.

"What do you mean, everything?" Ms. Wakeman asked confused.

"Just that. I want to understand why things are the way they are. I want to know how they got this way. I want to know it all, or as much as I can possibly figure out within my lifetime. One example among many is when terrible things happen, I always want an explanation as to both why it happened from the mouth of the perpetrator, and I want to know why that person had to be the victim in the first place from a universal standpoint and not just from the standpoint of the few people that just happen to know about it. When people usually ask if that person deserved it or not, I don't want to live out the rest of my life never knowing the answer to that. And if that person didn't deserve it, then why? And even if they deserved it, should they still suffer? You know what I mean?" Jenny asked.

"But that's…you should know that most people would never attempt to try this. There's too much that we do not understand that seems unreachable. But I do understand where you're coming from. You're starting to question the legitimacy of your heroism. You're also questioning everything. You're learning how not to take everything for face value. You're so young, but you're thinking on a level far beyond the average person. When I made you, I never once thought that you might become what you are now. I think it's amazing, and I urge you to go all the way with what you're trying to accomplish. You've had a lot more time to focus on it daily recently because the world isn't expecting you to do quite so much for it anymore, but at the same time, don't let this quest for understanding interfere too heavily with your daily life," Ms. Wakeman replied.

"I'm able to balance it pretty well for the most part. I realize the dangers of getting lost on tangents. Anyway, I think I have enough information from that Maverick Hunter computer. I need to go upstairs and take care of a few things," Jenny said.

"All right then. I'll see you later," Ms. Wakeman replied.

* * *

Later on that evening, Brad walked in on Tuck while he was watching the news. He noticed that Tuck had a very worried expression on his face.

"You okay, Tuck?" Brad asked.

A moment of silence passed before Tuck finally pressed the off button on the remote.

In a worried tone, Tuck said "Brad. There are three dead and one missing."

"Okay, so…?" Brad asked.

"You wanna know the strange part, right? Here's the killer. The bodies are undamaged and have no trace of chemical or biological agents in them. The other guy just disappeared without a trace. What's worse…the apparent murder took place at a shipyard?" Tuck explained.

"If I say what I wanna say, you're reply will be something like 'Let's just wait a while until we receive updates on the case. Then we'll see.' The most likely explanation is that another reploid decided to go Maverick and they ended up as the first victims. Mavericks are scarce nowadays, but they do pop up from time to time and do thought provoking things with their special abilities. You really shouldn't let your imagination run away itself," Brad said before walking out of the room.

Angrily, Tuck thought to himself "_Once again he doesn't listen to me. Whatever. I'm going to sleep._"

* * *

Misty followed Axl to the other world. Their relationship was a bit turbulent and this was mainly because both of them felt so uneasy talking a lot about their deepest feelings. That's the way they've always been. One thing they both agreed with each other on was that they were grateful to see the worlds become so much more peaceful, but they were so used to fighting that they had acquired a very strong taste for it, and as a result, the peace made them feel jittery and restless a lot of the time. To quell their thirsts, they would often spar together. Sometimes they felt as though they still wanted the real thing.

Axl spent some of the money he had earned from his Maverick hunting to buy himself a spot of land and a house to live in. Misty decided to stay with him at least until they felt like they could take their relationship to the next level. The spot of land was in a rural area not far from the city the Maverick Hunter base was in.

One afternoon, they were both in the middle of training exercises. The exercise they were currently on was a difficult one, at least for Misty. Axl only needed to stand in one spot with his hands in front of his face. Misty held on to his wrists and held her body in place suspended off the ground completely horizontal as if she were lying on her front. She held that position for over twenty minutes and the stress was tremendous. The longer she held it, the more of her purple mist she released into the air. By this time, they were surrounded in a cloud of it.

She also knew that if she was going to do this, she was going to sweat a lot, so she was only wearing underwear and a bra. Axl was quite surprised at how little body fat she actually had and just how well toned her muscles were. He had yet to lay eyes on a woman with that kind of physique.

"You know, Misty, I actually like the way your mist smells," Axl commented with a grin.

Misty blushed harder than she had in her entire life. This caused her to lose a great deal of focus. He could tell by how her body jerked and not by her face because he could only see her hair. Her body lowered by a few degrees. She tried to regain focus, but her blushing was too intense. She then lowered herself to the ground on purpose and let go of Axl's wrists. While on her knees, she popped her shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints.

She then looked up at him still blushing, and then she asked "Why did you have to say that right then? That's so unfair."

She then started laughing as Axl dropped to his knees. He couldn't hold in his laughter either.

Soon after, Misty asked "I never noticed that my mist had a scent. Do you really like its smell?"

Axl crawled right in front of her, pulled her close to him, sniffed her hair, and then replied with his mouth next to her ear "Your hair gives off the strongest scent and not your sweat like you might be thinking. I can only smell the scent of your mist from your hair when you release large amounts of it. It's a smell I can't describe because I know of nothing else like it. It actually excites me for some reason."

Losing control of her emotions, Misty grabbed him, hugged him tight around his neck, and then began kissing him passionately.


	3. Chapter 3

The following day, Ms. Wakeman was sitting in front of her computer. She wasn't working on anything in particular at the moment. She was just staring at the screen saver thinking about the data Jenny revealed to her.

She thought to herself "_This is some of the most fascinating information I've ever laid eyes on. I can see now that I made a very special daughter indeed. This goes so far beyond any expectation I ever had of her. In a little over a year and a half, she has managed to theorize about things that would take any normal human several lifetimes to think up. Most people never think about such things. Hold on, a transmission? I wonder who it is_."

She then pressed the receive button on her keyboard. The screen saver ceased and she saw the last person she ever expected to appear on the screen.

"I wonder what the nearly forgotten Vile would want with me," Ms. Wakeman said with a slightly irritated tone.

"I expected this kind of greeting; yet another ungrateful citizen," Vile replied.

"I know you helped out with Sigma's defeat, but what do you expect from us after smashing a few humans to death with your ride armor's fists?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"You know very well that I was just following orders," Vile retorted.

"I know that, but you do have a long history of terrible things you've done to people. I know you've been pardoned of your crimes, but I can't ignore the fact that you still did those things," Ms. Wakeman replied.

"Your so-called system of justice was on my side. If it was real justice, I would've been executed whether I helped or not. You were thinking more along the lines of you shouldn't speak to me or that I should be ignored by people as a whole. You weren't immediately thinking that I should die. I know I'm right. I'm waiting for you to lie," Vile explained.

"Actually…you are right," Ms. Wakeman confirmed with a surprised tone.

"You've been in the crime fighting business so long that you somehow forgot what it was like to have opinions like and average person does. You're forced to give the most socially acceptable opinion in order to have a good public face. It seems like you've been doing that for so long that you're original opinion has been obscured and you've tricked yourself into believing that that is your sincere opinion on the matter. People who don't have to worry about keeping appearances; the first thought that usually comes to their heads when someone commits an atrocity, is for that person to get all that he or she deserves. It's a primitive survival technique that basically says that the person is worried that if that criminal is allowed to go free without punishment, one day you or someone you care about could also possibly be hurt," Vile explained.

Ms. Wakeman's eyes widened some, and then she said "So that's what Jenny meant."

"Care to elaborate?" Vile asked.

"I…...really shouldn't tell you about her personal thoughts, but this actually concerns everyone, so I'll tell you as much as I can. She's been doing a lot of soul searching so to speak lately. She was talking about the same issue you were just talking about, but in a more complicated to understand wording. She's realizing more than most people ever do in their lifetimes just how primitive-natured we actually are, both humans and robots alike. What you just told me is an excellent example," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"She must be spending her time observing people and trying to figure out what makes them tick. She's nearing only ten years of age, and she's already thinking about these kinds of things. You've outdone yourself, and I bet you are just now realizing the extent of it all," Vile guessed.

"More or less, and I thank you for that compliment. I do take great pride in her. Well anyway, I don't have the power to judge or punish you, so I'll keep my opinions to myself for now. I know you called me for some other reason," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Yes, well, this call is about the fugitive Bamboo Pandemonium. At some point in the past seven months I became interested in finding his whereabouts because of how no one else seems to be able to find a trace of him. I happen to be one of the most efficient search and find reploids ever. My combat abilities come nowhere close. They used to use me for infiltration and spying missions when I began work as a Maverick Hunter. Eventually, they kept finding reasons to send me directly into battle, so that part of my past is mostly forgotten. I've used every trick in the book, and many of my own, and I'm drawing blanks. It's seems like he just ceased to exist or something. I've never known him to be so crafty. Then again, none of us really knew much about him at all. He was a strange one. He didn't talk much, and when he did, he mostly philosophized about things. He never gave much of his personal opinions about things either. I don't know how he operates, and I still can't figure out why he killed his own partners and saved that Misty girl. He's never given anyone a clue for them to understand what he's thinking. My only concrete guess is that he was probably waiting for a long time to find a reason to desert Sigma. I've already alerted many world leaders about my thoughts on this case, so I'm not singling you out. I just thought you should know since you have your daughter's help…you know…just in case you ever feel it necessary to pursue the case," Vile explained.

"Unless we have more information, there's nothing I can do about it right now, but the information you gave me is important to know. Thank you for your efforts. By the way, Mr. Vile, where exactly have you been? No one can locate you either," Ms. Wakeman pointed out.

"I knew you would ask that, just like everyone else did. It's really not that complicated. I'm simply not a people person. I've been a loner most of my life. I don't seriously see myself settling down in some city or town and I don't want to continue Maverick Hunter work even if I was allowed to be reinstated," Vile explained.

"Enjoying nature or something like that?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Something like that," Vile answered.

"You don't really seem to be what your name suggests," Ms. Wakeman said with a grin.

"Ah ha! That was very clever of you. I can also say that you seem nice enough. Until next time, Ms. Wakeman," Vile said.

As soon as the transmission ceased, Ms. Wakeman thought to herself "_I really wonder what he looks like behind that mask of his._"

* * *

Giga-Watt was not the same as he used to be. Being the only villain that survived Sigma's tyranny made him appreciate the life that he had a whole lot more. There was also the fact that if X had not decided to look for him inside of Sigma's body, he likely would've died. He felt like he was in X's debt.

He agreed to help rebuild to gain his freedom. His understanding of the flow of electrical currents helped greatly improve the efficiency of power plants of both worlds. The only reason he was allowed to roam freely was because even if he fed off of the power plants, he would not be able to completely drain any of them nearly as easily as he used to, plus the amazing security that they all now have would complicated things for him. People felt like they had less to fear from him these days anyway.

One day, he was wandering around through a building marked for demolition. He wanted to see if there happened to be some old batteries lying around to snack on.

As he checked each room, he said "This world has changed so much in such a short time. I hardly even recognize it anymore. In some ways, I think that it should never have happened. It seems too good to be true. Wait; what is this?"

About ten seconds later, people from outside the building heard a terrible screaming coming from inside the building. A few seconds later, they saw a terrified screaming Giga-Watt flying out of one of the windows at high speed. Not a one of them had ever seen someone scream like that in their lives. He didn't stick around long enough for anyone to ask him. Now they were more than a little concerned. They didn't want to see whatever it was he saw so they also kept their distance from the building.

* * *

Jenny heard about what happened and headed on over to the police station. She quickly found the room that Giga-Watt was in. He was trying to explain to the officers what he saw, but they had a very difficult time trying to believe him. The only reason they believe he saw anything out of the ordinary at all was because of the witnesses seeing him flee the building screaming.

Giga-Watt looked up at Jenny, and then asked "XJ9? What on Earth are you doing here?"

As Jenny walked over to Giga-Watt, one of the officers said "You really don't need to be here for this sort of thing, ma'am."

"I want to be here. I understand people are having a difficult time believing you, Giga-Watt, but I have reason to believe that if you're this frightened, you definitely saw something. Please tell me. What did you see?" Jenny asked in a calm tone.

"All right. I was in that old apartment building…looking for batteries. You know, some people leave those kinds of things lying around when they move. I'm not starving. I just wanted an extra snack. I finally some batteries, but…they were…floating in the middle of the air. It was dark and hard to see them, so I made my body glow even brighter. I heard a garbled windy sounding voice saying 'Are these what you're looking for?' I looked up and noticed that something was holding the batteries in its right hand. I couldn't make it out well, but it looked humanoid with most of its features too dark to make out. Suddenly, it leaned forward, and when it did, its features were revealed. Its appearance was more terrifying than anything I ever imagined. This overwhelming need to escape with my life washed over me like a tidal wave and I flew away screaming like I never have," Giga-Watt explained with apparent fear still in his voice.

"Can you describe its features?" Jenny asked.

"It's difficult to explain. Where should I begin?" Giga-Watt asked himself.

"So it's just that wild, huh? I've been meaning to try something, but I've yet to have the opportunity to try. You don't have any USB ports, so I can't connect to you in that way, but I have a different idea in mind. I read somewhere that your people have the ability to read each other's minds by resonating with each other, so I thought I'd give it a try," Jenny suggested.

"Isn't that dangerous?" One of the officers asked.

"Don't worry. I don't mind. I won't even attempt it if she cannot emit a constant flow of matching energy with me. XJ9, I will show you the type of energy necessary to do this," Giga-Watt said.

Giga-Watt's body suddenly began emitting a white energy that appeared to be vibrating rapidly. Jenny closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. Her joints buckled a few times, as if they were muscle spasms, and then the desired energy flow began emitting from her body.

As soon as she got it stable enough, Giga-Watt said "That's impressive. You are much more powerful than the time we fought. Okay. Now is the time," Giga-Watt said.

He showed Jenny the event from beginning to end, and as soon as she saw what she was looking for, she suddenly snapped out of their sync falling backwards with a scream. She trembled violently as she contemplated what she saw.

"Are you okay, Ms. Wakeman?" Another one of the officers asked.

As a few other people rushed into the room responding to the scream, Jenny asked "What…the hell…was that? You gotta be kidding me. That doesn't look like some prank or something conjured up. Hallucinations are usually never described…to be that terrible-looking. I know we've been hearing ghost stories lately, but damn. Whatever that was looked like it came straight out of hell."

"One of the other officers said nervously "You can't possibly mean that."

"I've never seen hell before, but that fucking thing looked way beyond any standard of terrible I've ever seen. Horror movies don't even scratch the surface of how terrifying that was. I don't even think the human conscious, or even robot or alien consciousness, is even capable of thinking that up," Jenny said while still trembling.

"That is exactly the feeling I got when I saw it. It looks like two or three different bodies were mutilated in the worst car crash ever, the pieces were then very poorly put back together into one body, cleaned up, and expected to operate normally somehow. It doesn't sound quite so scary until you notice the sort of…umm…a sort of…sinister…quality to it. Sinister sounds like a good word for it. It almost looks like its configuration was specifically intended to be as frightening as possible," Giga-Watt explained.

Jenny's gaze suddenly shifted to an officer to her left, and then she said "Let me guess. By the way you're looking at me, you want me to show you a video of it, don't you?"

The room suddenly quieted for a moment, and then the officer finally replied "Well…yes actually. The idea would be considered…standard procedure. We need to be on the same page as you, don't we?"

He was nervous by the way Jenny was looking at him.

A moment later, Jenny stood up and closed her eyes. She remained still for a moment.

She reopened her eyes, and then said "Everyone…I know this isn't an alien invasion and I know this isn't Sigma, but…"

Everyone else in the room was growing even more concerned with the look on Jenny's face and the way she suddenly trailed off and began staring into space.

One of the officers spoke up saying "I've grown to respect your opinions over time Jenny, but you can't seriously be saying you really believe in ghosts. Even if it is true…"

Jenny cut him off with a harsh near whispering tone saying "Listen to me, sir. Listen to me, everyone. I honestly don't know what the fuck to believe. I'm just scared right now. This isn't the same sacredness I get from fighting an enemy I don't think I can beat. This is much different. I've never felt…this…before. I don't even know if this ghost thing is even related for sure, but I feel like it could be. It's just…"

She trailed off again, but by the time she did, there was a wavering in her voice none of them had ever heard. They believed her when she said she was scared.

Giga-Watt then said "By the way you're talking about this…it sounds like you are scared of more than just this one little ghost sighting."

The wavering in Jenny's voice was strong as she said "First, my sensors allow me…to see into another dimension almost two years ago. I've been spending a lot of time using my advancements to sense other things I can't explain. I just…I really hope this doesn't turn into anything bad for us. If it does…"

"If it does…it could turn out to be bad for us all. I've never heard you speak like this. It sounds as if what you're telling us is that if is as bad as you fear…that we won't be able to depend on you at all," Giga-Watt said.

"That's just the problem. I don't know what it is. I have no clue at all. This isn't as simple as some energy distortion. For all we know, this could be a good thing. I hope…with everything I'm made of, that it is a good thing. Fear comes from not knowing, right? I…feel…like this is something: something…big. I don't even know that for sure. It's too complicated to figure out. It may be hard for you to picture, but for over a year now, a portion of my mind has been trying to calculate large numbers of complicated equations while trying to relate them to the complexities of real life. The number of equations keeps growing as time goes on. It's like it's trying to solve the mother of all puzzles. There are things about what I'm seeing that are scaring the crap out of me. Sometimes it seems like a great portion of it is pointing to some kind of upcoming event, but I don't know when. It's like trying to see into the future even though it seems impossible. I need to stop where I am with this. I'll show you guys the video, but I have to demand that this not be shown to the public yet. If I show this to the public, they're going to wanna know what I think about it. I'm afraid I might say something that will make them go into a panic. I don't believe this will serve to help them at all right now to show them. Look! I know I sound crazy, okay. I know it sounds like I'm just saying this shit because I'm so used to being in constant conflict. Ghosts? What the fuck? Are you kidding me? I saw what Giga-Watt just saw and I still have major trouble believing it. I want to believe it was just the world's best hologram prank thought up by some house hermit computer whiz," Jenny said in the same intense tone.

"Okay, now you're starting to sound more believable. I'm not talking about myself. I'm saying that the majority of people want to hear that you are at least trying to remain…down-to-earth. What you are telling us is going to make your sanity seem questionable, and that's mainly because, for most people, they feel as though it's just a bit too much for their minds to handle. The scale that you're thinking on right now is just too large for the average person to comprehend. It's a little too large even for me to comprehend. Either you have solid proof, or you're gonna have to take it really…really slowly when trying to get them to be on your page. Just some helpful advice," an officer explained.

Her voice waivered much less now and sounded more irritated as she responded "Yeah, I know. It's times like this I wish I could just plug my brain into everyone else's so they could see what I see."

"Yeah, but what if you ran into a human whose brain happens to be wired in such a way that you might catch something like a human equivalent of a computer virus. Since this issue has never come up, you would have no program designed to delete such a virus. I should've said something before you decided to do what you did with Giga-Watt," The same officer said.

Surprised, Jenny said "Wow! I never even thought of that as a possibility before; the part about humans giving robots viruses. Electrical signals are constantly flowing through your neurons, so I guess it is quite possible. How did you even come up with that? I bet my mom never even thought of that."

"I happened to see a movie long ago where some guy read some other guys mind, but after he did, his own mind never worked quite the same way again, as if he was infected," the officer answered.

"Well, I don't feel like anything has changed besides that mental image of that thing Giga-Watt saw," Jenny said.

"All right then. You win, Ms. Wakeman. We won't show this to the public just yet. It's not like they'd want to hear ghost stories right now anyway. We will keep this and a recording of this conversation in our files for later discussion amongst those strictly in this precinct. I'm hoping the government won't notice this and try to take a copy for themselves, but if they do, we won't have a choice but to give it to the higher authority. They usually don't do that to us, but anything involving you is a government matter. Does everyone else agree with this arrangement?" A female officer asked.

All the other officers, in unison, answered "Agreed."


	4. Chapter 4

It was true that Sheldon knew some amount of martial arts, but he wasn't exactly very well trained. He knew enough to defend himself against an attack from an average human, but since he hasn't trained much since Jenny came into his life years ago, his skills were very rusty. His body wasn't very strong either, so he finally decided to start training again.

There were a total of four gyms in Tremorton, but usually, any guy starting out would never go to the largest gym first. Let's just be real for a moment here. All bullshit aside; if you're a guy who is as out of shape as Sheldon is, you would most likely not only constantly feel inferior to the other really muscular guys around you in the bigger gym, but you would also likely get picked on as well. If you are a girl, try to imagine yourself in the same situation in a women's gym.

With this realization in mind from years ago, Sheldon decided to go to the smallest gym around. On the other hand, it is also true that most people know who Sheldon is and that he helped save the world more than once, but he decided that he's not going to take the chance regardless.

After applying and paying for his membership, he made his way into the main training area. Upon walking into the room, he noticed four other people in there at the moment. He looked a little more, and he then made eye contact with the fifth person sitting on a weight bench about fifteen feet away.

"And you know what's so crazy; I'm guessing you chose this gym for the same reason I did," Jason pointed out.

"Would this happen to be your first day as well?" Sheldon asked.

Jason raised his right hand pointing his index finger straight up while smiling with a look of realization on his face, and then he said "That reaction tells me you have a bigger reason for asking that question, but yes, this is my first day."

Sheldon quickly sat on the bench next to Jason, and then he said at a volume low enough so the others couldn't hear the conversation. "I'm tellin' you man; this is just the kind of thing Jenny's been talking so much about lately."

Jason raised his hand again, and then said with a somewhat more serious expression "Just a moment…You tryin' to tell me that Jenny's been studying…probabili…wait…I meant causality?"

Sheldon paused for a few seconds, and then asked "Causality? Well…yeah…that's part of it. You can say that. What it really is...is that; you know all those things we call coincidence…?"

Jason cut him off asking "So she's started to notice that a lot of things in life really don't seem as coincidental as most people treat them as, huh? Very few people treat that thought very seriously. No offense, but as extreme as she usually is, I'm guessing she's dwelling into this a whole lot."

"Extreme?" Sheldon asked confused.

Jason giggled a little at Sheldon's reaction.

Sheldon then replied "Okay, okay. I know what you're thinking. I don't think of her actions as being very extreme because I chose to put up with them because I'm her boyfriend, and that I've been doing it for so long that I don't really notice it. You can't get enough of removing every veil and exposing every little truth, can you?"

"Pretty much," Jason answered.

Sheldon grinned and said "You know; it's real convenient that you don't seem to have much to be revealed about you. You spent all this time insuring that you never seem to put on a front for people. We focus on that detail so much that it makes us think subconsciously that you don't have any uncomfortable truths to be revealed. You told it like it was pretty much every time, but when I try to remember all the information pertaining to you, I realized you never revealed much to us at all. I bet there's a whole butt load of Jason we know nothing about."

Grinning, Jason replied "Well, when you look at it like that, wouldn't you agree that pretty much everybody is like that? I just happened to decide to be as careful as possible. There's really not much anyone can pin on me besides the obvious things and that stupid decision I made because I wanted that money. Besides my parents, Grace is the only one I ever shared sensitive information like that with. Just like all the others, you decided to make a big deal out of this because every time I lift your veils, it feels like an attack. Just to let you know though, there's a whole lot of those events I don't really even remember the details to. I sometimes fear that a lot of people think that I'm some kind of huge database of every little truth I've revealed and plan on somehow using that to my advantage in the future. I'm really not that devoted. I do remember a small portion of that info because of how much they stand out to me. Shit; school was as boring as watching cows graze in a field all day. It just so happens that was one of the most enjoyable things I could find to do. The thing is, people usually aren't used to being called on their bullshit by people they aren't forced to live with everyday, and when it happens, they become defensive and are ready to throw figurative stones at the aggressor. Look at how stunned I was when people exposed my bullshit when I tried to have Jenny kill herself for money. I'm only saying that part of it to show that I recognize that I am not incapable of bullshit. But look man, I never apologized to you personally, but I am really…really sorry for what I did back then. That shit has been haunting me ever since."

By this time, Jason was no longer grinning.

"Well, you managed to save yourself just then. Your apology is accepted. You seem truthful enough. Yes, you're right about that one thing: the part about people not used to being called on their shit. It's like 'Fuck you man. You just exposed my well hidden secret." In other words, it's just as you said. It feels like an attack. I'm used to having my dirty little secrets exposed and put under the spotlight that I don't really react so strongly towards what you do. I just advise that you not take it too far. Some guy might shoot you one day," Sheldon warned.

"A possibility, but I'm not gonna say something like that to somebody that overwhelming evidence suggests that they might be dangerous. You might say that I'm a coward for only doing it to those I think I can get away with it, but if a person has a gun in the first place, doesn't that suggest that they're prepared to win the argument at any cost? Shooting me to avoid dealing with the problem seems pretty cowardly to me," Jason said.

"It's good that you just unjustified the guy with the gun, but try telling him that," Sheldon warned further.

"You got me on that one. Only, are you really suggesting that I sit back and allow the bullshit to continue unexposed like practically everybody else?" Jason asked.

"No, but try telling him that. I said that again to try to say that the gun will always decide the winner in an argument. Guns were invented specifically for insured victory. I gave that some really serious thought when I realized that Jenny's body is damn near a big gun. I'm just telling you to be careful," Sheldon replied.

"You surely made your point. I'm not trying to exit the conversation right now to avoid anymore of my bullshit from being exposed. I just need to get back to lifting these weights," Jason said.

"That…would be a waste of money to spend all our time talking. I do wanna know one thing; you tryin' to impress Grace or Angel?" Sheldon asked with a grin like he already knew the answer.

Jason gave him an odd look, and then replied "Somebody would eventually try that one on me, wouldn't they? Of course it's Grace, but…hmm…if I ever find a way to separate Angel from Grace, you can have her if you want. Man Angel can be a real bitch sometimes."

"The way their fully transformed state looks, I'd be afraid to know what Angel would look like alone: a scary thought indeed. And she's huge. I think that might be too much woman to handle," Sheldon said.

"My thoughts exactly. I think their transformation looks cool, but it's kinda hard to…you know…" Jason said as he signaled Sheldon.

"Yeah, it would be quite the issue. Also, sooner or later, Jenny will be…you know what I'm sayin', right?" Sheldon asked with a grin.

"Ah! A secretive plan cooking?" Jason asked with a grin.

"I'll leave it up to your imagination," Sheldon replied as he started pulling a bottle of water out of his bag.

* * *

X spent most of his time in his home world. Since very few Maverick attacks occurred nowadays, he spent most of his time in construction work. Both worlds had become much more peaceful than they used to be and X had finally begun to feel a sense of happiness he can't remember feeling.

The particular construction site he was working at today was very busy and potentially very hazardous. One of the orbital elevators needed to be shut down due to a need to install many new support structures to the base. The issue was not to let the elevator fall. Since it reached all the way up into the upper atmosphere, the height of the elevator was tremendous. If it fell, the damage it would cause would take months to recover from. Many force field structures were set up over the cities below in case of a disaster, so the elevator would be the one to take months to rebuild.

X was currently holding a large twenty ton metal plate up against a wall while other workers fastened it into place. The effort to hold something this heavy caused him to need to draw energy from his body as if he was firing a constant stream of weak buster shots. This caused his entire body to glow. He only agreed to this because the giant mechaniloid that was supposed to hold it in place had malfunctioned and was being repaired. This is one of many possible potential hazardous situations that could take place.

He had been holding up for over nine minutes now, and he was now starting to regret not transforming before volunteering for the task. He couldn't simply let go.

"Would it be okay with you if I help him hold that in place, sir? He looks like he's struggling," A voice he hadn't heard in quite a while said to one of the crew captains.

"Well…seeing as how you were strong enough to survive in a fight with Sigma, you ought to be strong enough to help X with this. If you want to help, just sign here saying that we won't be held accountable for injuries you may sustain. I'm asking you to do this because you aren't contracted to work with this company. X…also had to sign the same agreement," The captain explained.

"I can't believe you're here to help me, Killgore," X said.

After signing his name, Killgore made his way over to the platform and began holding up one side of the plate. X inched his way over to the other side in order to even out how much weight each of them was holding.

"So the Megaman thought he could hold this giant slab up all on his own without transforming? Seems you're becoming overconfident in your strength," Killgore pointed out.

"Bad judgment on my part to be sure. Fighting isn't exactly any easier, but I am more used to it. Where have you been lately anyway?" X asked.

"Here and there: I've grown to like the constant traveling lifestyle. I even joined a few berserk mechaniloid extermination teams. You know, the one's still left wandering aimlessly through the areas that Sigma used to control. There really doesn't seem to be anything left of Sigma at all," Killgore replied.

"Every time I hear those words, I feel even more relieved," X said.

"By the way, did you hear about those people in this world that suddenly started claiming to see ghosts just like they've been doing in my world?" Killgore asked.

"I ignored it when they started talking about that in your world, but I didn't know that people here had started doing that too. I've been too busy lately to notice. My best guess is that it's a prank or something to keep some kind of drama going around" X replied.

"You really don't think Sigma might be making holograms to scare people to death?" Killgore asked.

"No, I don't, actually. Sigma's a military-head warmonger. I would never expect him to stoop to the level of using tactics that would make him look like a high-school prankster. Plus, that day he died, I'm sorry, but that didn't look like an act. He was scared out of his mind knowing he was going to die. I have pretty much no reason to believe he survived," X explained.

"It would seem you have made an accurate assessment. Who am I to judge? I didn't know him as well as you did," Killgore said.

A man from a distance yelled into a megaphone saying "All right. X and…whoever you are; you guys can let go now."

Hesitantly, they both let go a finger at a time. When they were done, they both gave a sigh of relief.

"So, how much longer until they repair that mechaniloid?" X asked.

"About two more minutes. You guys can rest, or you can help with one of the other support structures if you wish," the man with the megaphone replied.

"So X, wait, what are you doing?" Killgore asked surprised at the fact that X was aiming his buster without warning.

X fired a single shot into the far distance. Killgore followed the trajectory and saw that the projectile hit a large mechaniloid that was about to fall off of a platform. The impact caused no significant damage to the well-armored machine as it forced the mechaniloid to regain its balance.

Everyone who witnessed this gave a huge sigh of relief.

"Maaaaaan, that was really quick thinking, X. You actually calculated the right amount of force at this distance. That's about three and a half miles from here. It's a good thing you did all that fighting for so many years. Experience really pays," One of the other workers complimented.

"Thanks," X responded.

Shocked, Killgore said "Now I see why you were able to save both XJ9 and Giga-Watt."

"The thing is, that's not the first time I've had to shoot something from this kind of distance. The first time I missed by about twenty feet. I've gotten better since. I'm not perfect or anything," X explained.

"Is that so? Whatever. It's time I hit the road. I can see how long it would take to complete this project, and I don't want to stick around that long," Killgore said as he jumped down off the platform.

"So, you were really just passing through?" X asked.

"Correct," Killgore answered.

"I think I might be wasting my time by asking, but would you like somebody to talk to for a little while?" X asked.

Killgore turned and looked X directly in the eyes in surprise.

A moment later, Killgore answered "Hah! Why not? Where should we meet?"

"Do you know where the Maverick Hunter branch is in this city?" X asked.

"I do actually. What time?" Killgore asked.

"How does tomorrow at 5:30 pm sound to you?" X asked.

As Killgore started walking away, he replied "That's fine. It's not like I have anywhere important to be anyway."

When Killgore was about a mile from the site, he thought to himself "_He's an odd one. He's knows my name and my past, yet he still looked at me with such a genuinely friendly smile. Most people are afraid to even stare at me for longer than they have to. Such power…and yet so gentle_."

* * *

Later on that day, XJ6 and Grace were spending time together in the apartment Grace rented. They were in the middle of listening to some music and talking about many different things.

"Hey. You wanna know…what practically no one listens to…anymore? Watch this," Grace said while picking up a remote.

A few seconds after the song changed, XJ6 said surprised "The last thing I expected from you. I never thought you'd like 1970's disco."

"And you know what, I actually…don't get why people think…it's corny. For the life…of me…I can't figure out how it…went out of style," Grace said.

"I think…it was probably that 80's rock n' roll thing. I read somewhere that it had a much bigger affect on the population than most people these days seem to know. Then there was the whole 90's rap thing. Hold on. This disco stuff isn't bad at all," XJ6 said as she realized that her body was involuntarily moving to the rhythm slightly.

Grace grinned, and then said "I thought you might like it."

Just then, Angel spoke up saying "Every major music genre must've had a huge impact on the population. You're a robot, and you still started moving to the music without even knowing it at first. I always wondered how music is able to do that to people. You know how if there is a loud sound system with a lot of base playing nearby, and you happen to be walking through that area, you have a tendency to start walking to the rhythm of that beat? I accidentally took control of Grace's body and made her do that once. Music is some powerful shit."

"Knowing you; you might try to tell me that you could probably mind control people like that," XJ6 pointed out.

"Knowing her, that's…exactly what she's…thinking," Grace commented.

"Just look at how extreme people would act when listening to those types of music. The disco attire and bad hairstyles, the Mohawks and the insane looking dancing people did with heavy and death metal, the ridiculous high top fades and baggy clothes with that whole old school rap thing. It went even further as rap changed from what it was into constantly talking about sex, drugs, lavish living and self-exaltation. You know what happened? Each time, the listeners followed suit. They went way out of their way to mimic what they saw and heard. Seems like mind-control to me, even if it wasn't deliberate," Angel explained.

"And what the fuck is 'death' metal? That sounds awful. I've heard it before, but the name sounds like some sick weirdo made it up. I don't know about all that mind-control stuff, but I do agree that people did act really strange back then. They still do come to think of it. It's just 'different' these days," XJ6 added.

"I'm sorry about that. I think that X guy's constant seriousness rubbed off on me. I'm already about to turn this get together into angst territory," Angel said.

"Don't worry about it too much. I do get a little annoyed with you sometimes, but I understand you. You're inside Grace all the time, so you think a lot because you're not doing much else most of the time. Jenny used to be so depressed, and when you added to that atmosphere, I got so mad. I don't dislike you or anything. I actually like you a lot believe it or not," XJ6 explained.

"Thanks. I like you too. You're the first to tell me that besides Grace. Jason told me that, but the way he said it, I wonder if he was telling the truth. See…dammit…I'm doing it again," Angel said.

"You used to be so ready to write anybody off at the drop of a hat. Now you're really trying to be nice to people. I wanna let you know that the others like you too. Killgore is questionable especially since he's never even mentioned you since Sigma…and he hasn't been around lately, but whatever. Everybody has let me know that they wouldn't mind being your friend. All you need to do is open up to them," XJ6 explained.

Slowly, Angel started crying. It was obvious because it showed through Grace. XJ6 never saw Grace make an expression like this one before. Grace didn't bother to interfere. XJ6 knelt down in front of Grace and hugged her.

Angel hugged her back, and then said "I feel…so foolish. I only valued Grace at first. Then…I saw how all of you…got along with each other…and now I regret pushing you all away. All you guys have ever done…was try to be nice to me. I'm sorry."

"Is this the first time you've ever cried like this?" XJ6 asked.

"It's the first time I've ever cried…at all. I've bottled in all these years," Angel replied.

"Crying is not a weakness. Being alone does not prove that you're strong. The only thing my so-called strength proves is that I can break stuff easily or lift heavy things. We robots were built with the idea of perfection in mind, but no one is perfect, and they can never be. No matter how much we try to be contrary, we can't escape the fact that we need each other. We have our greatest strength in our numbers and our bonds. Killgore told me once that Sigma said that he realized this the hard way and that's why he had an army. He knew he couldn't do what he did alone. If mega-villains like him can see it, why can't we?" XJ6 asked.

Wide-eyed, Angel said "As evil as he was, he managed to teach us one of the greatest lessons we should all learn. I really hope I didn't ruin everything."

"Not at all. I've actually been waiting for you to open up to me. I feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm really glad," XJ6 said with a smile.

"You mean…you've been waiting…all this time…to be my friend?" Angel asked surprised.

"Not just me, but the others too. It was depressing for us to know how lonely you were. Well, I know it was depressing for me at least. All you've ever truly known was Grace. I'm sure you would feel so much better inside to have more friends," XJ6 replied.

"Thank you so much. I do want to be your friend," Angel said.

"That settles it then. Another thing though: I won't try to embarrass you by announcing this so quickly. I'll let you handle whenever you want to tell the others how you feel, but I will help you if you ask," XJ6 said.

"Okay. Thank you for that," Angel said.

Grace spoke up saying "It's about…time. Was…that really so hard, Angel?"

"Grace had been trying to get me to be honest with myself. She stopped a while ago to give me time to think about it on my own. She didn't believe me when I said that the only person I cared about was her. I guess she was right after all," Angel explained.

"Well then, now that we've come this far; let's have some fun," XJ6 suggested.

"Yeah. Let's do it," Angel said.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, X sat on the front steps of the building waiting for Killgore to arrive. It was 5:42 and he still hadn't arrived yet. X was really starting to believe that he might not show. About a minute later, he finally saw him in the distance heading in his direction.

When he finally arrived, Killgore asked "Would you happen to have a better place than this to chat?"

"Sure. I was only out here to wait for you. I already arranged to have a vacant lounge," X replied.

"Sorry for being late. I got my directions a little mixed up," Killgore explained.

"It's okay. I'm just glad you're here," X said.

When they finally got settled down in the room, X started by asking "I know this is a little on the direct side, but how do you get the name Killgore?"

"I see you've never heard the story. Despite what I look like, I started out as a wind-up toy that was to be sold in a store. I looked very different and I was only about ten and a half inches tall. The name Killgore does seem a bit out of place, but it was suppose to describe my attitude and not necessarily my appearance," Killgore replied.

"That…really sounds hard to believe…the wind-up toy part I mean," X said.

"It's the truth. You can ask XJ9 or any of her sisters or any of her friends. You can even ask most of the young people in Tremorton. At that time, none of them took me seriously enough to consider me to be a real villain. I tried many times, and I came quite close to defeating XJ9 on a number of occasions. Without giving them any notice, I disappeared for a long time. By the time I thought I had what I needed to defeat her, Sigma showed up out of the blue. I spent all that time trying to become the greatest villain, and now I don't see a need for it anymore. At least I get to keep my upgrades," Killgore explained.

"Life really is strange sometimes. I bet you've noticed that all too well," X said.

"You are so very right. With your strength as it is, you could do great things," X suggested.

"Not everyone has a hero complex. I'm just not that selfless. I have considered doing some more of that construction work for pay, but I haven't made up my mind. Then again, there was also that time I managed to rebuild Armagedroid by myself. Maybe I could try to get a job in robotics engineering," Killgore guessed.

"That's amazing. I read up on that Armagedroid character, and you managed to rebuild him all alone? Did you also upgrade yourself?" X asked.

"Of course. The title of greatest villain would be questionable if I had help," Killgore replied.

"I see. Well, it seems as though you're a lot more intelligent than even you realize. Maybe you should do robotics engineering. The only problem is…your reputation. You helped save the world, but most people don't really trust you. Getting a job in that field will be difficult for you. I'm not going to lie to you to make you feel better. You're really going to have to give those employers a good reason to hire you," X explained.

"Reputation or not, I'll do what I have to get the job if that's what I want. I thank you for warning me in advance though. What's so funny?" Killgore asked.

X laughed a little, and then he replied "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help myself. Every word you say sounds so dramatic like a villain from a cartoon."

Grinning, Killgore said "And you actually sound like one of those goody two shoes heroes."

"Really? I never noticed that. Hmm. Well anyway, I wasn't trying to pick on you or anything. I just find it kind of humorous. The way you talk also has a strange exciting quality to it. It's really hard to explain properly," X explained.

"I was designed this way: my personality at least. I didn't think it was necessary to change the way I talk, but my voice is much deeper now," Killgore explained.

"Seriously though, there is something that has been bothering me since this morning. The whole…ghost thing: now that I think of it, I can't recall many reploids ever even mentioning ghosts or spirits or whatever. To tell you the truth, that's exactly what bothers me. What happens when robots of all kinds start talking about it all at once? Would that have a good result…or a bad one?" X asked.

Killgore thought about it for a moment, his eyes finally opened wide with shock, and then he replied "I think I know exactly what you're thinking. That could turn out to be really bad. I'll choose to stay quite on the subject as far as the public is concerned and just hope that it goes away on its own."

"The people don't need well known individuals or celebrities talking about that too deeply. If you are on the same page I am, which I'm confident you are, I'm pretty sure you know how to fill in the blanks," X said.

"Yes indeed. I'd rather change the subject, but it's good you brought that to my attention," Killgore said.

"All right then. Let's talk about something else," X said.

* * *

These days, Vexus was staying in her old home in the abandoned warehouse. Tlxs and the other team members were also staying with her, so now she had company. She no longer felt lonely and miserable.

Today, she invited both Zero and any of the others who wanted to come over. All of the XJs besides XJs 1 and 8 decided to join the get together. The only other person that decided to join them was Charlotte. Charlotte came over often anyway.

Jenny was about to sit down, when she looked to the right, and then asked "Would you happen to be Charlotte?"

"I am," Charlotte answered.

"Thank you for doing what you did for Vexus back then. If it weren't for you, she probably would've been in much worse shape by the time I found her," Jenny said.

"You're welcome. Here's the funny part about all this. I used to be such a huge fan of yours. You were the hero. Now I'm more of a fan of Vexus, and it's not just because she's my friend. I somehow imagined that if my life were to be saved in a dangerous situation, it would be you that came to my rescue. But lo and behold, Vexus of all people saved the day. It really was the very last thing I expected. I'm still a fan of yours, but it's not what it once was, no offense," Charlotte explained.

"Admittedly, I feel just a tiny bit let down by that but it's not that serious. It was much worse when I felt like the spotlight was taken off of me and put on X and Zero. It took me a while to get over that. I was the center of attention when I was the only global defender. It's fine though. I'm not going to hold it against you," Jenny said.

"I gotta say though, finally getting to meet you face to face is a real treat. I haven't forgotten about your sisters either. Hmm…why didn't XJ ah…1 and 8 show up?" Charlotte asked.

"XJ1 is usually afraid of strangers and XJ8 is helping my mom with a bunch of different things, plus she kind of had an argument with Captain Tlxs recently. They're not exactly on good terms right now. It's not like they were exactly friends to begin with," Jenny replied.

Tlxs spoke up saying "You'd be better off not asking what the argument was about, Charlotte. It was about something really petty after all. I'm sure this ridiculous matter will sort itself out."

"I wasn't planning on trying to pry it out of you, though I am still curious. But if it's something you don't want to talk about, that's fine," Charlotte said with a slight grin.

Tlxs sighed and then said "You hear that tone and see that grin on her face, XJ9? I can tell she isn't going to let this go easily. Can you please drop it for once, Charlotte?"

"All right, fine. I'll drop it this time," Charlotte said.

One of the other members of Tlxs's team, a woman named Gishlem said "Those two have much worse arguments than anything XJ8 and the Captain said to each other."

"All this gossip talk makes me wanna know about it myself, but I'll wait and ask XJ8 about it," XJ5 said.

"I wonder what's taking Vexus and Zero so long. They've been in that kitchen for quite a while now," XJ4 pointed out.

"Charlotte grinned and said "Zero's probably giving her ah…sword play lessons again."

Before anyone else had time to react, XJ5 began playing this strange sounding R&B song with heavy saxophones playing in the background. This caused everyone to start laughing one after the other.

Zero's head suddenly poked out from behind a door and he said with a disappointed look on his face "You guys know we can hear everything you're saying, right? You people have some of the dirtiest minds. Seriously, sword play lessons? You can't be serious."

He went back into the kitchen letting the door close behind him.

"Vexus did seem to be curious about his superior saber control," XJ6 said followed by another laugh from everyone else in the room.

This time, Vexus's head poked out from behind the door, and then she said with a grin "You know, XJ6, when you transform, you have some pretty superior sabers yourself. I guess that makes you more man than Zero."

As soon as she let the door close behind herself, everyone besides XJ6 laughed even harder than before.

"Now that's just not right," XJ6 said embarrassed.

"Sounds interesting. In that case, maybe I should go lesbian," Charlotte said followed by another group laugh.

"Now that's just as bad," XJ6 added.

Another man from Tlxs's team named Bezima said "Everybody in here is dirty minded as shit. That's just the way it is, right?"

"I gotta say XJ7, you really seem to have a lot on your mind lately. You haven't been acting the way you normally do," XJ4 pointed out.

As soon as she felt the spotlight shine on her, XJ7 suddenly blushed, and then tried to hide it.

"This is a first. I wonder who it is," Jenny asked.

"Please don't…let this leave this building," XJ7 pleaded with an obviously embarrassed tone in her voice.

"You're covered. I won't let that happen. If somebody like Tuck found out, he'd never let it go," Jenny said.

Vexus's head poked out from behind the door again, and then she said "I'm definitely curious to hear this one."

XJ7 let out a huge sigh, and then she answered "Believe it or not; it's actually Silver Fox."

Shocked, XJ4 let out a huge "Wow!"

Everyone else was quite surprised too.

"That was surely the last person I expected," Vexus said.

"I really…I didn't see him that way…until…he took off his mask. My whole perception…of him flipped when I saw his face," XJ7 explained nervously.

Gishlem spoke up saying "We only were able to see him when we looked at Vexus's recordings, but I gotta admit, that Fox guy really is surprisingly hot. His personality isn't exactly my type though."

"He actually seemed a little bit scary to me. It's that weird cold…icy appearance of his. He's not my type at all, that's why I didn't think much of his looks," XJ4 said.

"So, what is your type?" XJ7 asked.

"Actually…I kind of liked that uh…what was his name? Hold on, I'll think of it. It was…oh yeah, that Storm Eagle guy," XJ4 replied.

"Storm Eagle? Him? At least you didn't say Axel The Red," Jenny commented.

"If only it weren't for that whole Sigma manipulation thing. His craziness was a pretty huge turn off for me. In all seriousness, I'm really more into guys like Dark Mantis. Only, he's a bit too tall. Storm Eagle was a really tall guy, but Dark Mantis is way taller if he stood upright and he's just a little too skinny. I really liked his voice and his personality though. In truth, there haven't been many guys out there that I've actually been interested in at all. I'm sure there's somebody out there," XJ4 explained.

A few seconds later, all of the XJs in the room began laughing at once.

This received an eyebrow raise from most of the others.

While still laughing, Jenny said "Wooooow! XJ3! Oh shit! I never expected that from you. She just told us…that maybe…Vile should return…to show off his cannon to the ladies."

"They may be small, but XJs 2 and 3 don't exactly have the mind of a child. They are just as dirty as us, but it rarely shows. XJ1 is really the only one of us that is still innocent," XJ6 explained with a grin.

"I gotta say though, XJs 3 and 4, you girls have the worst taste in guys," Charlotte commented.

"Vile isn't bad looking, he's just a little too weird for me," Jenny said.

"Imagine this couple. XJ8…and Sigma," XJ5 said.

"Eww…Sigma? That's just too much. I know XJ8 doesn't have the best taste in guys either, but Sigma is definitely a bad choice, even if he weren't a bad guy," XJ6 commented.

"What do you girls think of Blaze Heatnix?" Gishlem asked before she started laughing.

"He's too extreme. Besides, Grace and Angel already swallowed up the evidence anyway," Jenny said with a grin.

Vexus laughed and let the door close behind her. The others who got the joke started laughing, and a few were grossed out.

"That's just the absolute worst joke I ever heard you say Jenny," XJ7 commented while trying to fight off her grin.

One of the other men on Tlxs's team named Fral said "Now I get it. That's nasty."

Another woman on the team named Nillian said "That's right. I just remembered that he was the one that got absorbed. That is a pretty raw joke by the way."

"Something wrong Jenny?" Charlotte asked.

A moment later, Jenny said "Maybe. It's really hard to…"

She suddenly raised her voice and yelled out "Hey Zero! I need you to come here for a second."

While Jenny was still concentrating, Zero came into the room asking "What's going on?"

A moment later, Jenny said "You know that prison they usually put all of the Mavericks in near the Maverick Hunter base is? Well…there's definitely something crazy going on over there. Seems like a bunch of inmates are trying to escape all at once."

"I know you can see some things happening in our world from time to time, but I didn't know your sensors were becoming this advanced. Are you sure about this?" Zero asked.

"I know you guys spent a lot of time trying to plan this get together, so I wouldn't tell you this if I didn't think it was important. In fact, I just contacted my mom's computer that happens to be connected to the Maverick Hunter Database, and I'm waiting for confirmation. Just a second….yes. I'm definitely right on the money. I'll patch you through to commander Signas now," Jenny replied.

A few seconds later, the colored portion of her eyes shrank the size of pencil erasers, and when she spoke again, it sounded like Commander Signas saying "Zero. Can you hear me?"

"Are you really able to talk through Jenny from here?" Zero asked in disbelief.

"It's kinda hard for me to believe it too, but the password is yellow grapes 3019. Did you get that?" Signas asked.

"There's no way Jenny could've known about that, so you're definitely the commander and Jenny's not losing it. Is there really a prison break?"

"Yes, and I've already dispatched several other Hunters to that location. I need you to go there now. Signas out," Signas said before disconnecting.

Vexus walked into the room and said "They would pick now to cause problems, wouldn't they. It's okay. We'll be here when you get back. Just be careful."

"These enemies aren't new, so I know how to deal with them just fine. Are any of you XJs coming along?" Zero asked.

Jenny and XJ6 decided to come along for the ride. The others surely weren't about to lie and say they weren't worried about their own safeties.


	6. Chapter 6

It took several hours to finally quell the chaos.

As the recaptured Mavericks were being hauled off to another prison, due to the fact that the one they were in was mostly destroyed, one of the reploid officers yelled out "There's one prisoner missing from the list."

"Who is it?" Signas aksed as he ran over to the officer.

"Her name is Layer. I believe she was once a part of your team, wasn't she?" The officer asked.

"You're right, she was. All right! All Maverick Hunters on duty assemble on front of me now," he said speaking into his communicator.

As soon as they all gathered, Signas said "Looks like we have a fugitive. It's Layer."

"Layer? Her? How did she manage it, sir?" One of the Hunters asked.

"I actually don't know how she pulled it off. She's nowhere to be found in the area. I need some of you to search for her immediately," Signas commanded.

"Wait! Before you do that, I need to tell you something about her," another officer yelled as he came running over to them.

"What is it, officer?" Signas asked.

"Near the beginning of this riot, I managed to wound her with my rifle near the bottom of her right rib region. I know nothing about her design, so I don't know if she had an actual rib cage under her armor or not. She kept running, and then boom! Out of nowhere, the chaos got a whole lot worse. I had to deal with what was right near me. I didn't think she would make it far with that wound so I kept fighting and eventually forgot about it, up until now. Come to think of it, all of these Mavericks have tracking devices that would cause damage to them if they removed it. We can't track her signal. She's likely in really bad shape right now if she removed it by force," The officer explained.

"I'm going to look for her now. Jenny just took off a few seconds ago, so I'll join her in the search," Zero said.

He jumped high into the air and activated his Absolute Zero Armor. He took off at high speed.

"That's seems excessive for this job, but he can get a good aerial view that way. All right! I need you five to search the area. Let's hope she hasn't gotten very far," Signas said.

"Roger," the selected five yelled.

* * *

Little did they know, Layer was long gone. She first high-jacked a very low-tech vehicle and drove it far away from the city areas and left it in the middle of the woods when its fuel tank ran out. She had been running on foot ever since.

Her advantage was being a navigator. She had many maps stored into her database, so she took the least likely and least populated routes. She had no idea where she was going to stop at. All the time, she kept holding onto her wound. She ran until her joints were wearing out. She ran until it was pitch black. She finally found an area way away from people in the middle of the woods. She finally collapsed to her knees and began weeping heavily.

"Zero. Why did everything go so wrong?" She asked out loud.

A few seconds later, she pushed her forehead into the grass, took a deep breath, and screamed at the top of her lungs. She cried uncontrollably screaming over and over again.

* * *

The next morning, Zero returned to the base, and ran to find Signas. Jenny was already there waiting for Zero to arrive.

As soon as he found Signas, Signas asked him "You didn't manage to find even a small trace of her, did you?"

"No sir. I used up a lot of my power looking for her too," Zero replied.

Jenny then said "Listen, Zero. There's something you should hear. I think this is because of you. There seems to be no reason she should've been able to get so far on a wound like that without fainting in the middle of an ally somewhere…if you only consider her design specs. I think her will carried her to wherever she is right now. I asked the security guards to tell me about her behavior while she was locked in her cell. The entire time she was there…she…she never talked to anyone. They said she looked nearly dead most of the time, like she had no will to live. One of the guards even said that she signaled him to end her life with his rifle one night without actually saying anything. He refused of course. He also let the other guards know about it and they tried to give her counseling sessions, but she never responded to any of their attempts. She just stared at them with a blank expression. She did say she did what she did for Sigma to get to you, so I think being forcefully separated from you did this to her. The guards that managed to see her running after the wound said that she looked more lively and determined than she ever had in her entire stay there. Honestly, I think she's planning to meet with you again one day. I'm quite sure it won't be anytime soon."

"I don't think she's that stupid either," Signas commented.

"I didn't realize it was quite this bad. I was hoping she would've gotten over me a long time ago. It's been over a year and a half," Zero said frustrated.

"If she does show up at your doorstep, Zero, make sure you let us know immediately," Signas said.

"Of course, sir," Zero replied.

Signas then turned and walked away.

"This is something I really wish I didn't have to deal with. I never in my life thought I might have a stalker," Zero said becoming even more frustrated.

"Hey, calm down. We're here to help you if you need it. We got your back," Jenny said.

Zero calmed down some and said "Thanks a lot. I need to get back to Vexus soon. I'm sure she's not going to like the sound of this situation though."

* * *

Surely enough, Vexus didn't like the sound of the situation.

"I knew about that girl for a while now, but I didn't expect this. Were you ever actually interested in her at any time?" Vexus asked looking him in his eyes.

"The answer is no. At the time, I wasn't thinking about women much at all. Back then, it was Sigma this and reploid and human harmony that. That was mostly what was on my mind. I barely even noticed her unless I really needed to talk to her, which was quite rare," Zero replied.

"It's seems she noticed you constantly. I really hope this issue just dies. That made me sound like I want her to die. I hope she finds happiness somewhere, just not with you," Vexus said.

"Same here. It's at the point now where if she did try to pursue me, it would probably get pretty ugly. In any case, she couldn't take me away from you if she tried," Zero added with a grin.

He pulled Vexus close and kissed her lips. She felt the honesty in his kiss very clearly and she kissed him back.

* * *

Later on that evening, Tuck was watching the news because they had announced earlier that they would give an update on the apparent murder case.

When they finally aired it, the announcer said "The person that went missing that day was found lying dead in the middle of the woods next to a river. Just as it was with the other victims, there is no sign of what killed him. Autopsy reports indicate that the best theory they could come up with was that all the victims were probably suffocated somehow, but in such cases, the victims' bodies usually show signs of damage of some kind from a struggle, even if they were to suffocate themselves. In this case, their bodies seem completely undamaged. As of now, each death is an utter mystery."

"_That really is something all right. In every case of death reported in the media, there's always a logical explanation for the event, but this time, there isn't one. It sounds to me that this is not the work of an overactive imagination like Brad seems to think_," Tuck thought to himself.


	7. Chapter 7

A young man of 23 years of age was walking alone on a bridge in the middle of the night. It was very quiet with no other people in sight. The only sounds he could hear were his footsteps and the sound of the water in the river below.

He had been walking for over two hours now, so he decided to take a break. He leaned forward against the guard rail and began staring at the reflection of the moon in the water. Suddenly, he heard a strange sound: a sound that seemed out-of-place. He turned around suddenly and saw something he thought was impossible up until that point.

In front of him was a long worm-like mass of water extending from the river below. The head of it was larger than the rest and it was suspended in mid-air. He attempted to make a run for it, but the water worm lunged after him and surrounded his body. In less than a minute, the man drowned.

The water worm then entered his body and a metamorphosis took place. Not only the body changed, but also the hair and clothing changed. The man's hair was once dark brown and short, but it was now pure blue and long enough to touch the ground and much fuller. His body became quite muscular, but not too bulky. His face changed completely and appeared more Asian than American as he was a moment ago. His finger nails grew in length and sharpened at the tips. His toenails did the same thing. His shirt dissolved away and his pants became much baggier and solid white. Fingerless gloves formed on his hands with a blue half-orb attached to the backs of the gloves. His shoes became sandals with metal straps. He also had metal leg braces above his ankles. A metal silver and black belt formed around his waist with two black cloth straps hanging down from under the belt. Lastly, large thick golden heavy wrist bands formed around his wrists. These bands constantly produced visible water that didn't drip.

His hair suddenly raised slightly in such a way where it wouldn't drag along the ground. He jumped about six feet into the air and stopped as if he were sitting on something. One leg was crossed while the other hung over. He then placed one balled fist under his chin and stared at the street below.

A moment later, he said "They certainly don't make roads the way they used to. I'd say this was a successful merger. The poor fool wasn't prepared to defend himself."

He laughed a little and then reverted to a mass of water and fell to the street below. The puddle then fell into the drain built into the bridge.

* * *

Early the following morning, Jenny was walking around in her mom's computer room. Her mom was actually sitting in front of the computer. Without warning, an incoming transmission prompt showed on the screen.

"I wonder who that could be," Jenny said.

Ms. Wakeman pressed the Y key and suddenly…

"Captain Black Phoenix? What do you want?" Jenny asked irritated.

"Ye mean to tell me a grudge still sits within you. Anger management might serve ye well," Phoenix said.

Ms. Wakeman sighed, and then said "Is this guy for real, Jenny?"

"Unfortunately," Jenny answered.

"I can't answer the question because…it not be about what I want. It's more a warning than anything," Phoenix said.

"Is this a threat?" Jenny asked.

"Not at all. Me ship's computers picked up a strange signal last night coming from Earth. In fact, it came from a place called…Georgia. I believe that be how it's pronounced. It lasted for only a minute, and disappeared completely. It not be the same as that…thing with those reploid people coming from that other dimension. I'm lettin' ye know because I get this funny feelin' you might be in fer some trouble. I just decided I do want somethin' from this. I wanna see if ye be capable of handlin' this. It oughtta be interestin'," Phoenix replied with a grin.

"What exactly are you doing, spying on our planet every day?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"You ever wonder why so many alien to your world are so interested in your planet? Ye don't even seem to realize what ye got. It's even better now. Now that you got a big freakin' portal connecting your worlds together constantly, a reinvigorated interest in your planet is poppin' up all over the galaxy. Don't be too surprised if you get yet another intergalactic war sometime soon," Phoenix replied.

"I'll keep that in mind. I admit the thought crossed my mind already on more than one occasion. So…you still planning on pillaging and plunder our planet for its booty, as you so aptly put it?" Jenny asked.

"That be all pirate rhetoric. I was merely puttin' on a show. If it weren't fer that anomaly, I could've had some more fun," Phoenix replied.

Angrily, Ms. Wakeman replied "You nearly killed my daughter with those red energy balls and you call that having fun? You mean to tell me that was just a show?"

"I might seem a bit slow to ye, but I knew what I was doin'. Those energy balls were designed to explode improperly and would've caused minimal damage. Fer some reason, when Vexus's energy collided with mine, it caused a much deadlier explosion than I planned on. I not be some kinda monster. I rob people but I only kill if I feel it necessary. I never actually planned on robbin' yer world. I was really only there to see the sights," Phoenix explained.

"You had me looking over my shoulders for damn near two whole years for this?" Jenny yelled angrily.

"That be the gist of it. I actually did ye a big favor. If you hadn't had somethin' to be afraid of all the time, you wouldn't be nearly as strong as ye are now. You trained well and received many upgrades because ye thought it was necessary. In short…I was training you without you even knowin' it," Phoenix replied.

Shocked, Jenny said "That was not expected at all. No wonder you didn't bother to come back all this time. Well…thanks…I guess. It was beneficial."

"You're welcome lass. I saw ye had lost so much of yer strength after that whole suicide ordeal. You were depressed and unhealthily angry. I thought ye needed some motivatin'," Phoenix explained.

"So how is scaring the shit out of her proper motivation?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"It may not be proper, but it certainly be needed. Why improve if ye don't feel it needed? I'm sure when you were in college all those years past, ye studied diligently because of yer fear of failin'. Ye get me point?" Phoenix asked.

"You really are smarter than I thought. I do have one question. What are you planning on getting out of helping her?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"I already got it. She thanked me earlier. There be one other thing though. Come to think of it, I would like a friendly sparring match some time later. Back then, I could've easily broken you to pieces like Armagedroid did, and probably by accident. The way ye are now, along with that nifty enhancer of yers, you can actually survive a solid hit from me," Phoenix replied grinning.

"You make me feel so weak. Looks like I still have work to do," Jenny said.

"There ye go. And now begins stage two of yer trainin' under me. You now have a new motivation fer wantin' to get stronger. And before I forget, you might want to look into that anomaly sooner than later. Fer now, I need to be goin," Phoenix said before terminating the transmission.

"Looks like he's on your side after all," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Yeah; I guess so. I don't need to be afraid of him for the same reason anymore," Jenny added.

* * *

More than three weeks had passed, and in that time, the number of ghost sightings increased around fivefold. The people as a whole were starting to become quite concerned. It was to the point where most people were wondering if this was a prank or a scare tactic from an unknown enemy.

If it was indeed holograms produced to scare people, they would be difficult to detect. The energy needed to make a hologram was not intense enough to easily show up on any available radar. As far as actually investigating the matter is concerned, no one's been seriously hurt or killed by these things, so law enforcement has yet to see it as a real cause for alarm.

* * *

Jenny spent some time walking alone through the streets of a city about two hundred miles from home. She was just using this time to think and to see sights that she hadn't before. After walking through the streets in no particular pattern for about an hour, she stopped on a sidewalk and noticed a church that looked abandoned to her left. Most churches were abandoned in that time period.

She studied its features for a moment, at then looked until she saw the intricately designed cross on top of the steeple. About a million thoughts raced through her mind as she couldn't explain to herself why she couldn't seem to get her eyes off of it.

A man came walking out from behind the church and noticed Jenny staring at the cross. Her expression seemed confused and slightly sad.

"Ms. Jenny Wakeman," The man said out loud.

Jenny suddenly snapped out of her trance and asked "Huh?"

As soon as she saw the man, he asked her "Are you okay?"

"I think so," Jenny answered.

"I saw you staring up at the cross. Is something on your mind?" The man asked.

"Umm…probably everything, but…I don't know what to focus on right now," Jenny replied.

"Maybe everything is what you should focus on. Maybe your purpose is to learn many things and then share that knowledge with others who also don't know what to focus on: the positive things of course," The man suggested.

"My purpose? I don't know what my purpose is. People tell me that what my mom had in mind when she made me is my purpose, but everything in me is telling me not to believe that: that there is supposed to be so much more to me," Jenny responded with a slight waver in her tone.

"Have you ever actually been inside of one of these churches before? I'm asking because you seemed so interested in it a moment ago," The man explained.

"No. No I haven't," Jenny answered.

"If you want to, you can join me inside for a few minutes," The man suggested as he held out his hand.

Hesitantly, Jenny took one step back.

"You know that feeling you're experiencing right now? If there's really nothing to it as most people say these days, then why are you having such unusually strong feelings about it? At the same time…if you try to look at it from a different light…do you also feel a sense of needing to know more about it as if it were calling you to it? Do you feel a tugging of some kind?" The man asked.

Wide-eyed, Jenny answered "Yes…I do."

"If you can admit that to yourself, then you're farther along than you realize. Come on in," The man said.

He walked up to the door and opened it. A few seconds later, Jenny followed behind him. When they made their way into the sanctuary, Jenny's eyes widened again. She had never seen a room that looked like this before. It may have been worn and dusty, but she was still amazed by it nevertheless.

"I never knew what the insides of these churches looked like. This has been right up under my nose all this time," Jenny said with astonishment in her voice.

When they made their way to the altar, the man laid his hand on the podium, and then said "Before the majority stopped caring about religion, this is where people used to be married. Imagine me as the priest, and you standing next to the man you love only about ten feet away from the podium looking back at me. That's the way it used to be. Now marriages are more of a legal document signing than what it used to be. Back then, it was thought of as a true union between a man and a woman under God, now they've turned it into more of a union between financial foundations and the understanding that the husband and wife are living under the same roof. When you look at it that way, it doesn't seem very special anymore, now does it?"

"Now it seems so…unimportant. It seems like God had a better idea of how it should be," Jenny commented.

"Yes; he certainly did. You know what's so interesting, the fact that you even said that means that you know much more about God than most people do. These people have become so ignorant of God's words," The man explained.

"I don't really know about that. I never even read the bible before," Jenny said.

"When you were staring up at that cross outside, I could tell one very important thing about you, and that is that you've changed more than you know from your first few years. Most people don't seem to speak on it, but have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? In only about three years, you've transformed almost into an entirely different person. You think so deeply. You care about humans and other life-forms more than your own, and many other things you didn't seem capable of when you were younger. Would I be correct in guessing that you've undergone an extensive search to find yourself and where you fit into all this?" The man asked.

"How could you tell?" Jenny asked surprised.

"Well, look where you are. You're in a church of all places. Well over ninety percent of the people in the world would've simply declined my invitation to come in here and likely told me I was crazy without giving it much thought. You know what I see now? I see a young woman who has nearly ran out of places to search because everywhere else seems too empty to provide you with the thing that's been tugging at your heart for so long. You're here now because you're desperate," The man guessed confidently.

Jenny raised her voice, and with an increasing tremble, she said "You're right. I am desperate. I don't know where else to turn. I constantly feel like I'm trying to find the answer to a question that has none, but my sanity depends on it. I remember around the time I started considering suicide a couple of years ago, I said that if there really is a God, and he put humans here, maybe he put the idea into mom's head to make me as well. I don't have any way to prove it. I don't think that the bible mentions robots since it was written so long ago, so what is my purpose? Do I even amount to anything? Is me given emotions and the ability to think for myself just an anomaly or an abomination? Am I something that was never meant to exist?"

The man heard the anguish in her voice, and the replied "The question of whether or not robots or reploids or any other beings we know little about have a genuine God given purpose is usually obscured by the limitations of the bible. In short, there is much that happened in this world that was never written in the bible. Consider this for a moment. When some of the first explorers from Europe sailed over to America, they were greeted by Native American Indians on the shore. Here's the issue with this. The story goes that those people know that the Europeans were coming and where they were going to land. The seashore was obviously many miles away from their homes because the sea water is too salty to drink. They lived alongside rivers for their fresh drinking water. Knowing that, why in the world would they even want to go near the sea shore in the first place? Well, the other part of this story goes into the fact that they claimed to have received a prophecy at some point in the past that told them when and where to meet the Europeans at. Now obviously, they only way for them to know that is for someone to have told them this: someone who can actually see into the future. The only person I can think of that's capable is God himself. The bible doesn't mention Indians, and it doesn't directly mention our side of the world as far as specific names of countries are concerned, but there they were, waiting for the white men to show up from across the sea. This tells me that God has spoken directly to more people than who is written about in the bible. On the other hand, the bible does say that only God has the power to create life. This may come as a shock to you, but if you really are alive in a literal sense, then the only thing your mom really managed to do was build a body for you. That would mean that at the moment your mom flipped the on switch, God gave the thumbs up for you to come to life. This also goes for your sisters as well."

"Wow! You seem to really know your stuff. What you said just now really opened my eyes to quite a few things I never thought about before. But still, what does that say about me? I am a robot. I feel alive, or is that what my programming is telling me to feel? How am I supposed to know how God views me?" Jenny asked.

"Yes, you are a robot. It doesn't seem logical to our primitive and limited minds for you to really have life as we do, but that's because we don't understand it. Saying that a robot has actual life is like trying to convince people that dragons actually existed at some point. Nearly everyone thinks it never happened. In the bible, there is a book called Job. In that book, Job was a man that Satan accused of being faithful to God only because of the riches God awarded him. He told God that if he were to take Job's riches away, Job would turn around and curse God's name. God put Satan's words to the test. He took his riches from Job, but Job praised God, which was a big surprise to Satan. Satan then told God that if he were to damage his health and make him suffer physically, he would then surely curse God's name. Job's suffering went on for quite a while, and he still refused to curse God, but what made God angry with him was his constant questioning of God's ways as if he had better judgment. God finally created a whirlwind to conceal himself in front of Job and the others he was sitting with and then challenged Job. God went on a very long rant asking him was he there when he did such and such. During that rant, God mentioned two creatures that do not exist today. He mentioned the Behemoth, and even described it in heavy detail. He also mentioned the Leviathan. The description God gave revealed that the Leviathan was a massive creature that had scales and could breathe fire. That struck you pretty hard, didn't it? What reason would God have to lie about creating such creatures? Not only that, but I believe it was Job that also mentioned the Leviathan earlier in the book. There is no accurate date as to when that book was written, but it was believed to have been written nearly two thousand years before Christ or possibly more. During that time, if such creatures actually existed, wouldn't it be interesting if the Romans or the ancient Egyptians used small dinosaur-like creatures as pets or even field laboring animals like oxen? Even you can hardly imagine dragons actually existing. Doesn't seem logical. For decades, people thought the idea of making computers that would actually work was ridiculous, but they came to be anyway. My question is, why would God make dragons if he didn't have a purpose for them? Why would he make it possible for you to be built and function the way you do if he didn't have a purpose for you?" The man asked.

Wide-eyed once again, Jenny said "That…is some of the most helpful insight I've ever heard in my life. With that in mind, there's a huge portal floating in the middle of the air allowing us to travel between these two dimensions at any time. Well…that is also another problem altoge…"

She was cut off by the sudden sound of a loud explosion in the distance.

"I can tell you're disappointed, but you should go. Feel free to come back later anytime. My name is William by the way," William said.

As Jenny began running out of the sanctuary, Jenny yelled "Thanks for everything you've told me. Why did this have to happen now? I was finally getting somewhere, and this had to happen."


	8. Chapter 8

A huge fire was raging out of control in an apartment building about four miles away from the church. It was caused by a fuel truck explosion. There was no sign of debris from a bomb so it was determined that it was merely faulty equipment. The situation definitely wasn't taken lightly though.

More than twenty people were already confirmed dead. Most of the people made it out of the building alive as usual for a middle-of-the-day fire. If they were all asleep when this happened, the situation likely would've been worse.

Only two fire trucks were there by the time Jenny arrived. She could hear other fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars rushing to the scene in the distance. Seeing this much fire at once, Jenny couldn't help but think about that time she stared into the flames surrounding Vexus's old barn until she cried.

She quickly fought that thought out of her mind and began attaching her transformed hose arms to the two nearby fire hydrants.

A police officer ran over to Jenny and said "I had no idea you would show up here so far away from your home. Well, thank you for being here anyway. This ought to end more quickly with your help."

"You're welcome. Yeah, I really just happened to be in the neighborhood. On the other hand, this might sound strange to you, but while it seems like a complete coincidence to you, I almost feel like I'm supposed to be here. I know what you're thinking, and no, no alarm went off in my head when I heard the explosion. What's particularly strange is that the alarm still hasn't gone off. I've let my mom know about this, and she can't figure out why the alarm didn't respond," Jenny explained.

"So you're saying that you just got a feeling that told you to be here?" The officer asked confused.

As soon as Jenny started spraying water, she replied "Sort of. It's really complicated. I'm still a little dumbfounded about it myself."

A large mechaniloid on wheels rolled around the corner, stopped, pointed a cannon at the flames and began spraying water from its tank at the building. Everyone already knew it wasn't a threat because of the fire department logo on its side.

Jenny disconnected her spraying arms from her body and they anchored into the ground below. She then formed new arms from her spares and began scanning the building as a double check to make sure no one was inside.

"Speaking of funny feelings, officer, I get this funny feeling something unusual is about to happen very soon," Jenny said as she was still scanning the building.

"Should I back away from here then?" The officer asked nervously.

"I'd be lying if I told you not to be cautious," Jenny answered.

The officer didn't want to take any chances, so he backed far away from the building. As the other rescue personnel arrived on the scene, Jenny impulsively jumped high into the air and activated her rockets to suspend herself. She looked straight down at the building below and her sensors started reacting wildly to the sight of what looked like some kind of flaming symbol on the roof.

As the seconds passed, all the sounds below seemed to disappear altogether. She instinctively thought it best to command her hose arms below to aim so the water would put that symbol out. Before she had that opportunity, the symbol glowed very brightly for about two seconds, and then the roof exploded.

Jenny's hearing suddenly came back as she saw something she couldn't believe she was seeing. What looked like a large ball of fire fell to the bottom floor from the ceiling, but then it jumped out from the front door and landed on the nearest police car for split second, and then it jumped once again high over the buildings and rocketed away at speeds much faster than Jenny's capable of in her normal state. Everyone then looked up at Jenny wondering what she planned to do about it.

"I'll check this thing out," Jenny yelled as she activated her enhancer.

As soon as the glowing from her body stopped, the people below saw a dark golden blur head in the direction of the flying fireball. Jenny never had to use her enhancer for a chase before, so moving at top speed for this long was a little overwhelming.

Even more overwhelming was the speed of the fireball. She couldn't believe she was being outrun. It was as if it knew it was being chased.

"_I wasn't convinced this thing was alive at first, but it just might be. How is it able to move so fast? I'm moving at mach seventeen right now_," Jenny thought to herself.

There was one way to catch up to it, but she would have to deactivate her speed limiter. Doing so would make her move up to mach twenty six or maybe more based on Ms. Wakeman's estimates, but doing so would make it very difficult for her to control herself. If she tried descending at that speed to grab hold of the fireball, she would also likely not be able to stop herself from crashing into the buildings or ground below. She didn't want to imagine what kind of destruction that would cause so she decided to leave her limiter alone.

Instead, she tried aiming her eye lasers at it to see if she could blow it up. As soon as she locked onto it, she fired immediately. When the thing dodged the lasers, she realized that it must be alive or is some kind of machine. She made sure that if she did miss, that the lasers would land in the empty swimming pool she saw, so everything was fine below.

She then strained to move faster without deactivating her limiter. With all her might, she finally was able to start gaining on it. The thing slowed down suddenly, and as soon as Jenny was close to it, the thing slit apart into four pieces and flew in different directions. Jenny had to put a lot of effort into stopping, and by the time she regained her composure, neither piece of the thing was anywhere to be seen or heard. She jetted straight up into the air to get a better view, but saw nothing.

"I already know they're not going to like my report. This shit is outrageous," Jenny said out loud.

* * *

Jenny returned to the city she left from and finished putting out the fire. Soon after, she returned to her normal state, and then went over to their police station to give her report.

In the main conference room, she linked herself up to the main monitor and showed everyone everything she saw.

As soon as they saw the flaming symbol, she paused the video there for everyone to see. Most of them gasped at the sight of it.

"What the hell are we dealing with, some kind of witchcraft?" A female officer asked.

"Who the hell would set up such an elaborate…why look at me like that? That couldn't have just appeared there on its own by coincidence. Somebody had to have set things up so that pattern would burn like that. It's too intricate for an accident," A male officer added.

"He makes a point. There has never been a report of something like this happening by accident," The chief added.

Jenny raised an eyebrow, looked at the chief, and then asked "So, has there ever been a report of this happening on purpose: one they confirmed to be deliberate?"

"I don't know if there has been or not. I mean…someone somewhere around this world probably has done this in the past, but none that I've ever heard of," The chief replied.

"Well actually…I knew I was gonna get that look. I did see a case of something like this happening nine years ago back when I was working at a different precinct. I even saw the photo of the burn marks on the side of the building that had been set on fire. The design wasn't nearly as intricate as this one. It looked more like a middle school student drew it. When the culprit finally confessed to it, it was indeed a middle school student. He made up some simple design and sprinkled gun powder that he managed to obtain onto some glue he smeared on the side of the building. He wanted to see if something amazing would happen if he did it, but nothing turned out the way he wanted it. After lighting it on fire, his hands got burned a little by the gun powder exploding and someone happened to witness this in time to call the fire department, and they put the fire out rather quickly. I thought it was a dead issue. Maybe we need to find that guy and ask him does he have any connections to this," Another male officer suggested.

"Not a bad idea. We'll try to contact him soon. He's an adult by now, and if he did it, he's definitely going to prison for lighting that building on fire and killing those people," The chief said.

"All right then, if it's okay with you guys, I'll continue the video," Jenny said.

"Go ahead," The chief said.

Jenny resumed the video. Jenny saw that all the people in the room were quite shocked at everything they were seeing. She even showed them the text that revealed her decision making. She didn't want them to be confused as to why she chose to do the things she did.

When the video finally ended, there was a heavy silence and awkward atmosphere for a few moments.

Finally, the chief spoke up saying "That was certainly no movie production. That craziness actually happened. What did you think that thing was, Ms. Wakeman?"

"The two most reasonable things I could come up with were that it was either a robot of some kind or some alien creature that either just arrived on Earth recently or it was here for a long time without us being aware of it. Either of those two things must've drawn that symbol," Jenny replied.

"You think it could be a reploid Maverick?" Another female officer asked.

"It very well could be, yes," Jenny answered.

"I didn't think any of them had flight specs that high. Even X's giga-attack flight mode with his ultimate armor only allows him to fly about half the speed you were flying just then. Zero's ultimate armor doesn't even allow him to fly that fast for that long. He would damage his wings that way," The same female officer explained.

"You've done more research on them than most people from our world ever do. You're completely accurate with your explanation," Jenny added.

"I've been a fan of those two ever since they showed up here a couple of years ago. My husband is too," The officer said.

"I'll be sure to let them know that soon. It's funny how they have more fans here than in their own world. Anyway, until I can find out where this thing is hiding, I won't know how to handle it. I've been trying to detect its whereabouts ever since it disappeared, and I can't find anything, even now," Jenny explained.

"It's not like that thing is a registered citizen, so you make a good point. Our best bet is to try contacting that guy officer Jones was talking about first. We'll contact you later if we think we'll be needing your help. Thank you for your services, Ms. Wakeman, and send your mom my best regards," The chief said.

"You're welcome, and I'll be sure to let her know," Jenny responded.

* * *

Later on that evening, many people kept reporting ghost sightings constantly. Police all around the world were scrambling to keep up with them all. There was nothing they could do to keep it a secret from the media. There was no proof of any of these sightings, but what was confirmed to be true was that a whole lot of people were becoming really frightened. This of course caused a chain reaction that caused a whole lot more people who hadn't seen these ghosts to become paranoid.

It was to the point that people in the other world even became nervous. The only thing that seemed to make these sightings make sense was that over ninety five percent of the reports indicated that the ghosts appeared for only a short moment, and then disappeared without a trace.

Over the next few days, the Maverick Hunters kept trying to convince the people that they didn't believe it was Sigma related. They only half bought it. It's not that they didn't believe that the Maverick Hunters believed what they were saying. It was that Sigma was the only person they knew who would go through all the trouble to make that many holograms, if that's what they were. They were becoming convinced that if it wasn't Sigma, then it was likely either another group of Mavericks, or possibly even alien activity.

Vexus even revealed that she thought she saw one a while ago as well around the time this all started. Her description of what she saw very closely matched the other sightings. Zero even confirmed her sighting by revealing that he was there when she thought she saw it.

* * *

The next night, Jenny was lying on her bed preparing to soon go to sleep. She held a magazine up and was looking at some of the pictures of cars and fashion models. In the middle of flipping a page, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

Wide-eyed, she quickly thought to herself "I really hope I'm not seeing…"

She then cautiously turned her head to the left where her desk is, and she finally saw her first ghost. It looked like a woman sitting on the chair looking back at Jenny. The woman was slightly transparent and her color was very faded out. Jenny clenched her fists tight heavily damaging the magazine and her whole body froze up. A few moments passed as neither of them did anything at all but stare at each other.

Without warning, the woman's face blurred to the left as she stood up. Her movements looked so unnatural that it made Jenny yelp and she rolled off of her bed. As soon as she hit the floor, she frantically stood up, opened the door, and ran out of her room with the utmost haste.

She made it to one of her mom's labs. Ms. Wakeman and XJs 4 and 7 were in there. Jenny slammed the door behind her.

With Jenny's back pressed up against the door, XJ4 asked nervously "What happened, Jenny?"

They all noticed that Jenny's whole body was trembling violently. They became nervous and ran over to her.

Ms. Wakeman put her hands on Jenny's shoulders and asked "What happened? Did you have another nightmare?"

Jenny slowly shook her head left and right signaling a no.

Still wide-eyed, Jenny whispered loudly "I think I…I think I just saw a fucking ghost for real…in my room. It was sitting at my desk looking at me. When it got up, I ran all the way down here. I've never been so scared before."

Before they could respond, she ran over to the lab computer and immediately began attaching cables to the back of her head. They followed her over to the screen and waited to see what she saw.

When she uploaded the video to the computer, she didn't hit the play button yet. Instead, she then removed the cables and backed away from the screen.

"One of you hit the play button," Jenny said.

Nervously, XJ7 rolled over to the computer and pressed play. Their eyes widened as well when they saw it on the screen. As soon as the video got to the point where Jenny last saw the ghost, the lights in the house dimmed suddenly for a moment, and then returned to normal.

"That shit is scary," Jenny said as she looked as if she was bracing herself.

The video continued playing until she arrived in the lab.

"That's when I stopped recording," Jenny confirmed.

XJ4 then said nervously "Mom, I don't think she made this up, and I don't think she's hallucinating."

Also nervous, Ms. Wakeman said "I would sound crazy to the average person, but I honestly don't think that was a hologram. It looked way too realistic."

Also nervous, XJ7 asked "What do we do now?"

Ms. Wakeman tapped a button on her watch, and then she spoke into it saying "I want every one of you in here now. This is urgent."

It didn't take long for all of the other XJs to arrive. They came with great haste when they heard how nervous their mom's voice sounded.

When they saw how scared Jenny looked, XJ8 asked "What is going on in here?"

Ms. Wakeman then answered "Unless I show you the video first, you'll probably think this is a waste of your time. Keep in mind this just happened a few minutes ago."

When they saw the video, they all became just as nervous as the others. Jenny was the most frightened since she was actually there to see the ghost.

Ms. Wakeman then said "I called you all down here, because if that thing is still in our house, we need to find it and deal with it. I can't confirm that it really is a ghost, but it certainly looks like it might just be one. We need to split into…"

Jenny cut her off by saying "Oh no! That can't be. I always turn that chair around and slide it under the desk. I never left it facing me. That ghost lady must've turned it around without me noticing."

As Jenny became even more frightened than before, the others realized she was telling the truth.

"I really do hope this is an elaborate prank by a Maverick or something. All right. XJs 2, 3, 7, and 8 team up. XJs 5, 6, and 9 team up. XJs 1 and 4 are coming with me," Ms. Wakeman said.

They all immediately formed their teams and started running around the house. Ms. Wakeman told all of her computers hooked up to the surveillance systems to look out for anything unusual. After about twenty minutes, they all met back up with each other.

"We checked every room and closet. We checked under every bed and behind every piece of furniture and we found no trace of it," XJ8 said.

"We had the same luck," XJ6 added.

"Ditto," Ms. Wakeman added.

"I hope you girls don't think I'm malfunctioning," Jenny said.

"If it weren't for the constant sightings, I would probably think so. Whatever you saw was actually there. The more I play the image in my mind over and over, the more I can't see it as some prank. If it is a hologram, the culprit is trying to frighten people more than just a little bit. That ghost lady was really scary looking. People who aren't used to seeing strange things often like that can end up having heart attacks that way," XJ5 replied.

"That is a point indeed. You look like you just realized something, Jenny," Ms. Wakeman pointed out.

"I can't talk about it, but I did. All I can say is that heart attacks coming out of this situation aren't what I'm worried about the most. In fact, it's better I say nothing about it at all. If I do, it'll only serve to make what I'm thinking about more likely to happen. I hope that this whole ghost thing dies soon," Jenny said before she started walking away.

"Where are you going?" XJ8 asked.

"I'll be out for a little while because I need some time to think. Besides, how can I sleep in my room tonight knowing that thing was in there? Please don't follow me, and don't worry about me. I'll be fine," Jenny replied just before continuing to walk out the front door.


	9. Chapter 9

Just as Jenny feared, the ghost situation didn't stop. In fact, it steadily grew worse. About a week had passed since Jenny saw her first ghost, and she's seen a few more since. Most people by now had seen at least one, including world leaders.

Very few sightings have been reported in the other world, so that led most people to believe that the reports were most likely a product of hype. In Jenny's world however, a world conference was being held in response to this situation because people wanted answers quickly.

Many citizens from all around the world also attended, humans, robots, and reploids.

"How exactly are we supposed to find out who's doing this?" One man yelled from the crowd.

"Has anyone even determined if these things are really ghosts or not?" Another man yelled.

"What do we do if one of them shows up in here in the middle of this meeting?" One woman yelled.

Another man looked at her and yelled "What kind of question is that, lady? How the hell are you supposed to defend yourself against something that can pass through solid objects?"

"If you can't respond to me with a better tone than that, then don't respond to me at all," The woman replied.

Jenny then raised her right arm, transformed the end of it into a loud speaker, and then made a very loud screech noise.

When everyone finally quieted down, the main speaker said into the microphone "If any of you wants to discuss this in a timely manner, then it would be a lot easier if you weren't all screaming at each other. Now, this is by far the strangest situation that's happened to us in probably all of history. Aliens are one thing, but ghosts, if they are really that, are in a whole different league. There are many experts everywhere trying to figure this thing out around the clock. They weren't interested in this until people kept saying that these things have the ability to move solid objects around. Now they are putting aside many of their important projects to try and figure this thing out. I have one scientist here that's ready to give you her report."

He stepped down and the scientist stepped up the podium.

"Hello everyone, my name is Professor Beatrice Nichol. In the start of this whole mess, there was no way to confirm what these things actually are or if they even actually exist. They couldn't be detected by any known instrument. As advanced as XJ9's sensors are, even she can't detect them. Her mother, Ms. Wakeman, cannot even detect them with her instruments. So then, we tried a different approach. We used an idea based on an older method of seeing a planet's presence in a far away solar system that couldn't normally be seen. In that method developed nearly a hundred years ago, telescopes couldn't actually see the planets at all because not enough light was reflecting off of them for the telescopes to see them. What they actually did then, was they waited until the planet in question passed in front of its star. With that eclipsing effect, they could see that the planet was there without being able to see its details. In our case, my team devised a way to see if there was some form of energy fluctuation caused by the ghosts' presence. First, we created holograms of our own with many different configurations and light spectrums, and then we mapped out all of the different energy fluctuations in their surrounding areas. So then, we went on to try to determine of any of these ghosts were actually just holograms. We amplified the signal receiving power of our instruments many fold in a short amount of time. We waited to see what we could find. What the instruments were able to pick up each time a sighting happened seemed to be nothing unusual at first. Over time, we began to see something very strange. This is something only the scientists in my team have seen so far. But first, I need you to see what the patterns of the holograms usually look like. Keep in mind that this is a basic wave-pattern representation. There are many numbers and equations involved, but it would take many hours to share that information with you," Beatrice explained before turning on the giant monitor.

"As you can all see, these patterns indicate that light has been concentrated into a small space. The next pattern, what we gathered from the possible ghosts, may shock you. In this animated representation, this is what our instruments would normally pick up. The sudden abrupt holes you see here is what happens when a person is standing in any spot. You fill in that space for the time you are there creating a hole or an interruption, if you will, in the path that the light from the sun travels. This is normal. Most of us never even notice this because we are used to it. Electricity from a lightning bolt would keep traveling if you weren't in its path at the moment, which is another example. If you stand in front of a fan and someone complains that you are blocking the air flow, that's because you interrupted the flow of the atmosphere with your presence. It's only slightly different with robots and reploids, the patterns I mean. Here is the shocking part. We started detecting…these holes as time went on. They've been increasing as quickly as the sightings have. As you can see, these holes are vastly different than the others. I can tell you that this is definitely not normal. These patterns don't say anything about concentrated light. These patterns not only indicate an unusual hole, but also both a light reflection and light being absorbed into those spots. The light being absorbed is actually still in the process of being determined as to whether it is actually light at all. If it is light, it's a spectrum of light no one really knows much about at all. It could be the absorption of something else entirely. In short, these could actually be some form of alien creatures masquerading as humans, but…I'd be lying to you if I thought the ghost theory wasn't still worth looking into. I'll give you all some time to discuss this amongst yourselves. When you're ready, feel free to either ask questions or share your thoughts."

Nearly everyone was shocked by this information. The people watching this conference on their TVs were also shocked. After looking at the screen for about a minute longer, Jenny walked over to the stage and asked Beatrice if she could see the detailed report sitting on the podium. Beatrice had no problem with it, and not only that, the world was waiting for Jenny's verdict. She read through all of the hundreds of pages of information in less than two minutes. She set the pages down and looked back up at the screen and watched the patterns animation repeat itself over and over again.

Jenny concentrated so intensely that her body eventually began glowing slightly. Everyone quickly realized why Jenny was glowing the way she was. Her concentration continued for more than ten minutes as the speakers urged the people to give her time.

Jenny then said "I still need some more time. You all can discuss whatever you want to discuss without having to worry about interrupting me. I can't even hear what I'm saying right now, so I definitely can't hear you. I turned off my hearing for the time being so we won't distract each other. I'll let you know when I'm done. Oh, and before I stop talking, I do have a recorder that's on right now. I'll listen to it in fast forward as soon as I'm done so I can know what has been discussed. You may continue now."

As she continued concentrating, one man in the crowd said "I do agree with that woman who spoke out earlier in one way. If these really are ghosts, what are we supposed to do about it? The question is the same if these things are aliens. I'm sure this is one of the main questions people everywhere are asking right now."

Beatrice then said "That is an issue. What are we supposed to do about it? We make weapons based on quickly breaking apart solid physical objects. If these things were liquid, we would try to find a way to evaporate or freeze them. Electrocution is also an alternative. If they are light beings, trying to fizzle them out using light distortion might cause deadly radiation to be released into the atmosphere harming or killing us too. The fact of the matter is, if these things are our enemies, which they haven't proven themselves to be yet, and if we feel the need to attack, then we would have a very difficult time trying to do so because we have yet to fight such beings. Weapon types are usually made on an as needed basis, and so far, the world militaries have yet to authorize us to try to make any new types of weapons. We make upgrades to what we have all the time, but rarely do we make completely new types of weapons. Come to think of it, the closest thing to light enemies anyone here has fought was when XJ9 fought with those flaming umm…energy beings from that planet. We know neither the name of their race nor the planet they come from, but whatever. They actually had to maintain a certain level of solidity in order to survive which is why Jenny was able to fight them off. There's also Misty, but all you would need to do is find a way to catch her off guard while she's solid to damage her. Misty is no longer viewed as a threat, so that's besides the point. I feel like I'm just rambling on now, but the point is, right now, we still need a lot of brainstorming. Hell, we could get a bunch of comic book and anime fans to come up with a brilliant idea for us to try."

Most people laughed a little at her last sentence.

One man from the crowd yelled out "If it wasn't for that comic book statement, the tension would still be strong as steel. You managed to make us feel a little better. But seriously, I do have one question. Do any of you know how to contact Captain Black Phoenix? He did talk to the Wakemans recently about a distortion his ship detected, so do you think that what he detected might be the same as this."

"That's right. That was announced in the news. I forgot about that. We know of a way to contact him from here, but it's very difficult to pinpoint his exact location from this far away. The best way we know how is to…yeah, we could try that. We could contact Queen Vega on Cluster Prime and ask her to ask the captain to call us. Cluster Prime has much more efficient long distance communication technology. I see you guys behind me are calling our military right now. Yes people, if all goes well, we'll have him contact us very soon. I just hope he agrees to talk to us. In the mean time, we'll try to see if we can determine if the two are related. That was a very good question by the way," Beatrice complimented.

Jenny finally turned to face the crowd with a very serious look on her face. She then held up one finger signaling that she was still listening to the recording.

As soon as she put her hand down, she returned to the podium again, and then said "Aliens, anime, Vega, Phoenix. I heard it all. Sounds good I guess. I have no objections to those things. Weapons on the other hand need to be thought out very carefully. No good will come out of defeating them if radiation ends up causing cancer. I've gone over this information and tried connecting it with everything I know. My mom is also looking into the information I just sent her. I'd also be lying if I said I didn't think these things are ghost. In fact, the only reason I'd have to say that would be to keep from scaring you. The thing is, they could be ghosts, but what do we know? It's not like we've ever taking a ghost and did experiments on it in a lab. Here is a theory of mine though. I won't be surprised if other people have also thought of the same thing. Ghosts. We often ask what they are, but what if we asked where they come from? These things might be beings from another dimension. Look at it this way. Reploids showed up out of the blue one day from another dimension, so what about these things? There's obviously a huge difference between the two though. The most well respected theory on dimensions is that there are two different kinds: alternate dimensions and separate dimensions. In alternate dimensions, the physical properties are very similar to ours. In separate dimensions, the physical properties are vastly different from ours to the point where we may know nothing about it. That's how the theory goes anyway. It's very possible that they found a way to infiltrate our world recently, or…they could've always been here with us and are just now showing themselves more regularly. It's difficult to say for sure, but people have been telling ghost stories since the dawn of man. Maybe they can't return home for some strange reason. I'm making it up as I go along now, so try to bear with me. It definitely seems like they're trying to communicate with us for some reason. Only a few cases have been reported of the ghosts actually knowing how to speak the way we do, and I'll tell you now, the fact that they can greatly disturbs me. I found a way to see what Giga-Watt saw and heard through a complicated connection process and hearing it speak was just the strangest thing to me. The last of these things that I saw I tried to talk to it, but it didn't even acknowledge that I spoke to it. I'm gonna let you people know that I am scared of all this. Truthfully, I am so scared that I think I'd rather deal with Sigma again than this. At least I already fought him before. Fear comes from not knowing, and this is definitive proof of that saying. What makes it even worse is that these things don't seem to be following orders. They all seem to be acting independent of each other. If they were following orders, I would probably have a better chance of finding the source or their leader and try to put a stop to all this. All this data gives us only a bunch of inconclusive knowledge. It's helpful…but it's simply not enough. If it is enough, maybe we just aren't looking at it from the right angle. We need final confirmation, but finding it is the problem. That's all I have for now. I'm sorry I don't have more useful information to tell you."

A moment later, one man yelled "I know this is kind of scary, but what if these things are actually demons?"

That question made the crowd stir some, then Jenny asked "Demons, huh?"

She then thought to herself "_Oh, how I wish he didn't ask that question. This is likely about to get ugly_."

The same man then yelled "I noticed this entire time no one wants to mention anything about what is written in the bible. If these things really are ghosts or demons, maybe the bible has more credibility than most of you people think. I know most people don't believe in God these days, but seriously, if they are spirits, we just saw them with our own two eyes. I didn't even believe in it or hardly even thought about it up until all this happened."

Jenny then said "I've never read it myself, so I can't help you with that question since I don't really know what I'm talking about."

The same man then yelled "You mean to say that you honestly don't think there is some kind of connection?"

"Okay; fine. Maybe there is a connection. Where exactly are you going with this?" Jenny asked.

The man then yelled "You said yourself that these things could be from another dimension…"

Jenny thought to herself in the middle of his sentence with a feeling that was the robot equivalent of something sinking to the pit of her stomach "_Oh no_."

The man continued his sentence yelling "So what if these things came from heaven or hell?"

That's when it started. The crowd raised its volume as heavy arguments broke out.

The man yelled again "What are your thoughts XJ9?"

"Well…umm…I guess those places would be considered…other dimensions, but I don't…" Jenny replied nervously just before being cut off by a scream from a robot from the crowd.

Jenny then thought to herself again "_Oh no!_"

The robot then yelled "Doesn't the bible talk about heaven and hell? It does. Do robots have spirits or souls?"

Jenny then thought to herself once again "_Oh no!_"

A wave of bad feelings went through all the robots and reploids that heard that question.

The robot then yelled "If they are spirits, they all look like they came from humans, even the really scary ones. Do robots even have a place to go after we die?"

At this point, the media wanted to pull the plug on the broadcast, but the whole world was watching, so they couldn't. The robot that asked those questions got really scared and started panicking. Many of the others in the crowd also started getting pretty loud.

"Please! Try to calm down. What are you doing?" Jenny asked in a tone as if she knew something bad was about to happen.

A few seconds later, Jenny screamed "No! Somebody stop him now."

Before they knew what she was talking about, the robot sat back down in his chair and slumped his head over.

Suddenly, a loud basic sounding computer voice came from his body saying "DELETED!"

Almost everyone paused in shock as they realized what he just did. Jenny turned around, and as her back slid downwards against the podium, she heard the crowd behind her go into an uproar. As soon as she rested on the ground, she pulled her knees close and buried her face in them. She couldn't hold it in any longer as she started crying.


	10. Chapter 10

The situation with the robot that deleted himself didn't stop there. Soon after, many other robots and reploids did the same thing. One man on TV said that he thought it was amazing that this issue had been avoided for as long as it did, and…that it only took one reploid to set off this chain reaction of self-deletions.

Most robots and reploids were simply too afraid to commit suicide, though many did feel the same way. They suddenly became very curious about the validity of their existence, just like Jenny did. The few that were still religious in the world felt as though this was finally their time to preach about their beliefs to the public once again. Unfortunately, this was met with resistance. It was religious tensions all over again, just as it was in the past.

Just when people thought things were going good, things suddenly went bad again. Most people of that time were atheists, but not the self-proclaimed kind. Self-proclaimed atheists usually are the ones who speak against God directly. Most of the people didn't want to comment on it because they didn't want to be caught up in any kind of serious tensions that could possibly lead to physical conflict. These were also usually the ones that didn't really care enough about it to want to kick people out of their house because of their beliefs.

Some people would say "How do you go about proving the existence of God?

Others would say "Look at the spirits. Haven't you seen them? Is that not proof enough?"

And the arguments continued. The rate of increase in the ghost sightings reached a plateau. The number of daily occurrences stopped growing.

Then there was the other issue. How could humans continue to ignore the validity of their existence as well while the robots were constantly talking about it?

* * *

Jenny hadn't come out of her room much for over a week now. She kept assuring her family and friends that she was not considering suicide again. She was just saddened by how everything was turning out so badly. She told them about how long she had been thinking about her place in the universe without telling them. They had no idea that was one of the main reasons she decided to attempt suicide the first time. It suddenly made sense to them why she went to such an extreme. She meant it when she said she didn't want to commit suicide.

To say that the validity issue didn't bother the other XJs would be a huge lie. It bothered them greatly though they did pretty well to hide it. They tried to put it out of their minds most of the time.

As Jenny lay in her bed, she stared up at the ceiling with a mostly blank expression on her face. She had been like this for several hours…just thinking.

Suddenly, she sat up and placed her feet on the floor.

She then whispered "There's got to be something I'm not seeing. If I have no life after this one…better yet, if I'm doomed to hell. I'll look at it from that angle. If I'm doomed to hell no matter what, then why do I feel happiness from time to time while I'm here? If hell is my fate, why would God want to make a world full of the possibility to feel happiness? Okay. The last time I talked to you God, was when I asked you why you had mom make me? If you are as all-powerful as you claim to be, then I'm sure you already know that. I need to know if there is an afterlife for us robots. I feel you are the only one who has that answer. How can I continue to be useful to this world and the people in it if I feel like everything I've done for them amounts to nothing on my end of the deal? If I am constantly depressed, how can I function properly? You made it possible for us to be made for a reason, so what is that reason? Why talk to you now after ignoring you all this time? I can't hear you, but you might be asking me that question. I ignored you all this time because I felt like I had no reason to believe in you. Now I have a lot of reasons to. One of the biggest reasons is not because of these ghosts or demons or whatever they are, it's because I have reason to believe you sent me to that church. How else would I happen to meet with a believer that's so knowledgeable about you right after looking at that cross? That does not seem like a coincidence. To a degree, I felt like I was being led there in the first place. If all this proves that you are real, then I'm sorry I ignored you for so long. Please, tell me, in some way, please let me know what my purpose is and if there is an afterlife for us. I'm sorry for thinking that you were so cruel for letting that guy delete himself the way he did. I know that we are the ones who are messed up. We don't know what we're doing. I've been reminded over and over again how impulsive I am and how impulsive other people are, so I figured that one out on my own….or…are we so messed up…that only certain people are gifted with that kind of awareness? I'm not gonna try to claim that because I don't know. If you really are real, than I am the stupid one and I need your teaching. So please, I'm begging you, teach me."

A moment later, Jenny whispered "I figured I shouldn't expect an immediate answer. It must be situational, so the time hasn't come yet. I'll just wait and see."

Just then, Jenny heard a knock at the door.

XJ6 yelled "Jenny, there's big trouble. Somebody is attacking a city pretty far from here. The alarm doesn't see a threat for some reason. The story is on the news. You can find out where to go from there. Mom is sending XJs 7 and 8 with you."

"All right. I'm going. Sitting around here all the time isn't doing me any good anyway," Jenny replied.

"You sound like you're in a better mood," XJ6 pointed out.

"I am actually. I'll tell you about it later, for now, I have a city to save," Jenny said.

* * *

When they arrived on the scene, they didn't believe the sight they were seeing. They saw many bodies all over the place that didn't appear to be damaged at all.

As they ran around looking for the culprit, Jenny thought to herself "_In the news, they said they only caught a split second glimpse of the killer. They weren't able to give a good description. The fact that it's night doesn't help things either_."

She scanned the area for over a minute until her sensors picked up something odd.

"I think the killer is in the library, girls," Jenny whispered.

"My sensors don't see anything," XJ7 whispered confused.

"Mine neither," XJ8 whispered.

"It keeps moving around really fast. I barely picked up on it myself. Let's go," Jenny whispered.

They moved quickly into the library as stealthy as possible. After over a minute, Jenny stopped and looked in the direction of who she thought the killer was with a confused look on her face.

"What's wrong," XJ7 asked.

"I think he's looking at us…right through the walls. He's waiting for us," Jenny answered.

Jenny started running normally at this point. Her sisters were confused, but they decided that Jenny knew what she was talking about, so they followed suit. When they arrived in the room Jenny was looking for, they first saw many undamaged bodies lying around. They kept walking until they found who they were looking for.

"That man has a lot of hair, and it's blue. It's so frickin' pretty too. How does he do it?" XJ7 asked with an angry sarcastic tone in her voice.

The man from before, with the power to control water, and the one who killed the man on the bridge, was sitting in a soft chair with a book in his left hand. He laughed a little at XJ7's comment.

"I couldn't see his form through the walls. Even with infrared, he looked like a weird blurry blob. I didn't expect him to look like this," Jenny explained.

"You in the chair; what is your name, and why are you here?" XJ8 asked.

With the same smile he'd been wearing since they first saw him, he just flipped to the next page without responding to XJ8's question.

"My sister asked you a question," XJ7 said firmly.

He still continued to ignore them.

Jenny pointed at him and yelled "I don't care if you ignore us or not. You killed all these people and that means I'm either taking you to prison, or I'm taking you down."

He then reached his right hand over to the coffee table in front of him and turned a sign around towards them that read "Please be quiet in library."

Jenny growled and then yelled "Fuck that damned sign. I bet you didn't care about the rules when you killed everybody in here."

He then laughed and said "Yes. You're right. I didn't."

All of them growled at his comment.

Jenny transformed her forearm into a large laser cannon and pointed it directly at his head, and then yelled "If you come quietly, you won't die from this laser cannon."

"Tell me something. What is a laser anyway?" The man asked.

"What?" All three XJs asked in unison.

"What do you mean you don't know what a laser is?" XJ7 asked.

The man finally directed his eyes towards them, and then said "I'm still trying to understand all these new things. How exactly did this world manage to make so much new technology in the past couple of hundred years?"

All of them shocked by what he said, Jenny asked "Who exactly are you?"

"Well, seeing as how you have failed to answer my first two questions, I really shouldn't answer yours, but I will. My name is Suija. I've been asleep for nearly two hundred years," Suija replied.

"No wonder your accent sounds like old-style Japanese. You managed to learn English pretty quickly if you really have been asleep for that long as you claim," XJ8 commented.

"In order for you to be on the same page as me, I'd like you to guess what I actually am. I'm sure by now you've guessed I'm not a…human as you people call them today," Suija said.

"Hmm…are you some kind of monster or alien?" XJ7 asked.

"A monster, you say? I always thought a monster was something living that occurs unnaturally. That seems to be what metal suits of armor like you women are. When you say alien, I'm assuming you are referring to those people from the other worlds out there beyond the sky. I don't come from out there, but if you had to put a label on me, I'm more like an alien than a monster. But please, guess again. There is a proper name for my kind. Also, use the word that you would find in your tongue," Suija said.

All three XJs looked at each other with a look of realization.

Jenny looked back at Suija, and then guessed "Based on what you just told me, and considering all the things that have been happening in this world lately, I'm guessing that you are a…demon?"

"You are correct," Suija answered.

The XJs slowly started backing away from him out of fear.

"I don't get it. I thought demons were intangible," XJ7 said with obvious fear in her voice.

"Normally that is true, but I'm not going to spend my time explaining my case to you. I don't think the minds of stupid little girls like you would be able to handle it. If you can't even explain your own cases, how can you understand mine?" Suija asked.

"You may be right, but don't call me and my sisters stupid. Then again, demons are supposed to be evil, so I guess I should expect insults like that from you," Jenny said angrily.

"I called you stupid for a reason, and it's not just because that's how I actually feel about you. I have quickly discovered that the minds of this generation have been so heavily degraded. Your knowledge of technology and how to handle things like money have improved, but you people have lost so much understanding of things that would actually help you. But as we've already established, I am a demon, so I'm not planning on educating you. In fact, it's time I leave this place. I'm getting bored sitting around here," Suija said.

"If you really are a demon, then you must know if God really exists or not, right?" Jenny asked.

Suija grinned, and then replied "I'll say it this way. I don't think you even know who you're asking about."

Angrily, Jenny asked "What is that supposed to mean? Of course I know who I'm asking…"

She was cut off by a sudden bright flash of light. As soon as it disappeared, Suija was nowhere to be seen.

"How the hell did he do that? XJ7 asked.

"Just when I thought I was getting somewhere, he's gone. I can't detect him at all. We were supposed to bring him in. How were we supposed to know he could do that?" Jenny asked angrily.

Suddenly, they started seeing many eyes appearing in the middle of the air all around the room. A few seconds later, ghostly bodies formed around the eyes. All three XJs became very frightened at their sudden appearance. Then there was the fact that neither of them had ever seen more than one at a time. This is actually XJ7s first time seeing any in person though.

The ghosts were just either sitting or standing still. Only a few were walking around slowly.

Jenny impulsively asked "Are you Suija's men?"

All of the ghosts suddenly locked eyes on the three of them when they weren't even paying attention to them before the question. They didn't answer. They just kept staring.

"I'm sorry girls, but I'm too scared to stay here any longer. Let's get out of here, please," Jenny pleaded shaking like a leaf.

"Yeah! Let's go," XJ7 said in a high pitched frightened tone.

Scared for their lives, all three sisters left the building as quickly as possible. When they made it outside, both Zero and Vexus were heading towards them. All three sisters were panicking as they ran over to them.

"Calm down, girls. What happened in there?" Zero asked concerned.

Vexus pointed and yelled "Look there, Zero."

They all looked back at the library and saw that many ghosts were walking after them slowly.

Frantically, Jenny yelled "They're following us. We gotta get out of here, now?"

"We can't leave until the police from the next city over arrive. You have to give them your report," Zero explained.

"What are the police gonna do against that?" Jenny yelled.

Zero began running towards the ghosts, activated his saber, and began slicing at them wildly. It looked wild, but he was in complete control. When he stopped, he jumped high into the air and landed near his friends looking back at the ghosts…who were completely undamaged.

"You can't be serious. My blade has always done some amount of damage before. I think you're right, Jenny. We need to get out of here before we find out what else they can do," Zero said with a slight hint of fear in his voice.

Neither of them ever heard this tone come from Zero before. They did as he suggested and ran away as fast as they could. In the distance, they could hear the ghosts calling them cowards.


	11. Chapter 11

Jenny and the others didn't report to the police. They instead returned to Ms. Wakeman's house and tried to contact the president.

Jenny also invited Brad, Tuck, Melody, and Sheldon over to fill them in on the situation.

As they waited for the president to call them, Tuck had to ask the question "Why in the world did you call us here for this Jenny? We're not really strong like you."

"I want to let you know because I don't want to keep my friends in the dark, plus one of you might be able to give helpful suggestions since you know pretty well the kinds of things we go through all the time," Jenny answered.

"You still sound pretty shaken up, Jenn," Brad pointed out.

"More than you know, but wait until we talk to the president. Everything will become clear then," Jenny explained.

About a minute passed, and finally, the transmission came through.

"It's good that you caught me during a few hours of free time. All right then, Jenny. Let's hear it," The President said.

"Where do I begin? Okay; we met up with the killer inside the library. He was weird looking. He kind of looked like a human, but I don't think he is. He had sharp claw-like finger nails and toenails, and he had really long and thick bushy blue hair. He also had these two thick heavy wrist bands with a thick layer of water covering them but the water didn't drip. It just constantly flowed around the bands slowly in a circle. I think that's why he was able to kill those people without damaging their bodies, by drowning them. He must've killed those other guys in the news as well. He told us his name was Suija. He looks and sounds like a Japanese guy. Here's the worst part. He claims that he's a demon," Jenny explained.

Everyone who hadn't yet known of this was shocked.

"Were you able to confirm this claim?" The president asked.

"Well, when we were still looking for him, my infrared vision saw him through the walls. He was moving too fast at first for me to tell what he was. The guy stopped finally and then it appeared as though he was looking right at me through the walls. When I looked at his form, he looked more like a blob. When he finally came into view for real, he looked like a human. He didn't suddenly replace the blob. I know he was the blob because I kept my right eye on him the entire time. I can't prove that he's a demon, but he certainly seems like one. Oh, and he also said he had been asleep for like two hundred years or something and he was surprised at the technology we have now. So then I was about to charge him and try to restrain him, but he made this really bright blue flash and disappeared. I couldn't find him anywhere. Not long after that, all those ghosts just appeared in the room at once. It seemed like there might've been about a hundred of them. I asked them if they were Suija's men, and then they all like instantly turned their heads and looked at us with these blank expressions. We got so scared that we ran out of there like our lives depended on it. Zero and Vexus showed up when we finally got out of the building. Those things were following us. I told Zero we needed to get out of there, but he said we need to wait for the police. I told him that the police can't handle that. He tried to cut them with his sword but his blade passed right through them as if they were made of air. He couldn't hurt them, so we all ran away because we were out of ideas. We came here immediately and contacted you," Jenny explained.

"Well, the reports I'm getting from police are telling me that those ghosts are still out there, but they're not doing much of anything. They aren't attacking anybody. They're just wandering around. The young boy with the black hair right there; you look like you know something about this," The President pointed out.

"Yes, Tuck. That's why I invited you here. Go ahead and tell her everything you think you know," Jenny said.

Nervously, Tuck explained "Umm…it started about two years ago before the Smytus and Krackus attack. Me, Jenny, and my brother Brad here went out to Tremorton park. I have these books that I carry around with me everywhere I go so I guess that's why you brought me here. I started reading to them this story about a legendary fire demon that no one knows the name of that burned down an entire village in less than a couple of hours. I thought the story was so interesting that I couldn't wait for the next volume of the book so I could read the continuation. I finally got it. Oh yeah, the name of the series is called 'Forgotten Myths and Legends.' In the second volume it tells of an event that happened in Russia a long time ago where…oh, now I get it Jenny. The story said that the victims died the same way. They all died with no obvious damage done to them. You must be saying that that Suija guy must be the same demon they were talking about. I knew it. Oh, but wait, the same story also said that there was a struggle. They saw signs of a really big fight. They didn't actually know about the water demon, but after that guy went insane babbling about the fire demon, they assumed the fire demon was fighting against possibly another demon. Everything seems to add up. It's my guess that every couple of hundred years or so, they wake up and start wreaking havoc. The story also said that they were seeing ghosts and hired a priest to try to ward them off. So when they appear, the ghost also…no wait. When the ghosts start to appear, that means that the demons will soon come. It makes sense to me."

By this time, Tuck was no longer nervous, he was excited.

"That must also mean…" Jenny said while looking at Tuck.

"Oh! Right. That fireball thing you were chasing. That must be the fire demon. Look at the evidence. It looked like somebody wrote some witchcraft symbol in the ceiling of that burning building, and then, boom, he appears," Tuck explained.

Jenny sighed, buried her face in her hands, and then said "I knew it."

"This is really something indeed. If what you're saying is true, then we need to start preparing for the worst immediately. We don't know how powerful these people who claim to be demons are. I will discuss this with our people and I will get back to you very soon. Thank you for your report, XJ9," The President said before the screen turned off.

"Demons? We've all seen at least one ghost by now, so demons are not that surprising," Melody said.

"Looks like you do get a chance to fight that fire demon from the stories after all, Jenny. This is gonna be so cool," Tuck said excited.

"I'm not really looking forward to anything like this myself," Ms. Wakeman added.

"Me neither. This is turning out to be some really scary shit," XJ4 said in a serious tone.

"Did any of you happen to think it was odd that our president was acting a little strange during the end of the conversation?" Brad asked concerned.

Jenny lifted her head slowly from her hands and then said in a very serious tone "I know she can no longer hear us because the transmission has been cut, and I need you all not to record anything I'm about to say."

"What's wrong, Jenny?" Vexus asked.

A short moment of silence followed her question, and then Jenny replied "I'm really starting to question the trustworthiness of our president."

Everyone in the room besides Brad was shocked to hear her say that.

"I hear ya, Jenn. She revealed more than she realized with those last few sentences," Brad said.

"It was as soon as she said 'This is really something indeed' that made me feel like something was wrong. It wasn't what she said; it was the way she said it. She sounded as if she confirmed something in her own mind she had already had suspicions about, or maybe something she already knew for sure, but never actually encountered it. It sounded as if she was saying 'I knew it.' Isn't that what you noticed, Brad?" Jenny asked.

"Mm hmm. I felt that, but you worded it better than me. But that's not all, is it Jenny?" Brad asked.

"Oh, yeah. There's more all right. What in the world does she know about preparing for the worst when it comes to demons? You can't prepare for anything immediately if you don't know how. She said it as if she already knows how. It's obvious that we don't know how powerful they are. Her tone shifted slightly, like a not-so-perfectly hidden nervousness, as if she was trying to make up something off the top of her head to make it seem like she knew as little as we do. She even sped up slightly when she said that sentence which is even more suspicious. The craziest part was when she said I will discuss this with our people. Discuss what? If you know nothing about it, how can you possibly get back us soon? To make it worse, she said very soon. Not only that, but who are these people she is referring to? At face value, you would assume she was talking about her cabinet, but if that were the case, wouldn't she have specified that…as she usually does. Every time I've talked to her about people she needs to discuss matters with, she's always been specific. Isn't that your experience, Mom?" Jenny asked.

"Now that I think of it, you're absolutely right," Ms. Wakeman answered with a worried tone.

"But now that I think about it even further, she said…our…people. The only times she uses my…is when she's referring to her cabinet or any of her other advisors. If she refers to the Department of Defense, she never uses my or our. She simply refers to them as the Department of Defense. The same goes for every other branch of government. She even went out of her way to end the conversation so quickly as if to keep us from thinking too deeply about it," Jenny explained.

"That…is some really whacked-out stuff right there," Tuck said wide-eyed.

"Do you guys remember what Sigma said before we fought him?" Zero asked.

Jenny changed her voice to match Sigma's, and then said "Before we begin, I want you all to know that whether I win…or you all win…the destruction of the world as you know it…is inevitable. If you win, both your worlds' destruction will take longer, but how much? I've observed both worlds and have arrived at the same conclusion. Both your worlds are much more unstable than you realize. Compare it roughly to an aerosol can that will soon burst because you carelessly left it near an open flame. I'm not going to bother explaining it to you, but if you do kill me today, I want you to examine your reality from an alternate perspective to try to piece together this mystery."

"Oh my God!" XJ5 said impulsively.

Jenny's voice returned to normal, and then she said "Examine your reality from an alternate perspective, huh? Sigma, you don't know what I've been up to. That's why my attitude changed so much back then. That's why I became so fucking depressed. I was trying to figure out why I had to suffer so much. The more I looked at the world around me, the more I ended up making myself more depressed. So we carelessly left an aerosol can next to an open flame? Interesting. I don't remember seeing this flame he's talking about. Let's look at that from that alternate perspective he mentioned. What if the open flame has always been there, but we didn't see it, or rather, we didn't recognize as being dangerous enough to explode our can? Here's a way to look at this the way I see it. You know how something can be so small, that you didn't notice it for what it is? In this situation, imagine it as something that's so big, that even though you're looking right at it every day, you don't recognize it for what it really is. That would go to say that the flame is all around us all the time, but we have yet to notice it at all. Everybody knows that the world is fucked up, but what if it's actually way fucking worse off than we ever thought?"

Unlike Jenny, Melody was designed with the ability to produce tears, and hearing what Jenny just said was making her eyes water.

Melody then asked with a slight tremble in her voice "So this is what you've been thinking about all this time? I want to believe that your theory is false, but I can't deny that is has some real foundation. These governments keep secrets from us all the time, but they always say it's for our safety and national security. No wonder Grace and Angel are so mad all the time. They did mention something about secret societies that our government doesn't tell us about. What if our government is working with them under our noses?"

"You just realized what I was just thinking about. She said our people. Who are these people that can help her get back to us very soon like she claims? I will say that I can be wrong about her. She could just be losing her touch or is just rushing out of fear of these demons as she basically just said. I can't deny the way she said her words sounded to me though. And if she's not the problem, then who is? I also can't deny what Sigma said about the open flame thing. Some really crazy stuff is going on out there, and we need to be very cautious about how we approach this. This is no longer just superhero stuff. This has become much more complicated. I need to tell you guys also that when I used my sensors on Suija, I couldn't sense anything familiar about him down in his core. His flesh seemed like a deformed version of a human's, but I also sensed something very foreign about his energy. I can't prove anything, but I feel like I know that he is a demon like he claims. And if we just saw a real demon, then that alone lets me know that things are way crazier than we ever thought," Jenny explained.

"This goes so far beyond anything I ever thought I'd be involved in when I built you girls. I really don't like this. This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder if I made you too smart for your own good, Jenny. If you weren't though, you might've fallen victim to this craziness and wouldn't begin to understand why," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Wow! You know, I never thought that a couple of stories in a book would have so much attached to them that we couldn't see," Tuck pointed out.

* * *

Over the course of the next few days, Jenny managed to pass on everything that happened to X, Killgore, Misty and Axl, many of the other Maverick Hunters including Signas, Wisteria and Glenn, and Grace and Jason, without the government becoming suspicious of her activities. She waited patiently for their responses.

In the mean time, she decided to find a website on the internet where the Holy Bible could be read for free. Since she didn't have to sign up for it, she could remain anonymous. Why remain anonymous? She didn't want the government thinking that she was starting to put two and two together about anything they might be doing.

She started reading aloud, but in a whisper "Let's see here. In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. In the beginning of what, this universe or all of existence? That's probably not too important at the moment. Actually, this site says that the book was written by that Moses guy. Maybe he was shown a vision or something. He could mean in the beginning of his vision. Sounds crazy, but then it says heavens as in plural and not heaven. Heavens probably is referring to everything beyond the earth. The Earth…hmm. Maybe both our Earth and theirs are connected somehow. Maybe that's why the portal we made is so stable. But what if…oh wow; this is complicated. What if the rules for our dimension are different from theirs? What if their bible is different from ours? According to this site, they're exactly identical. That's very interesting to know. If it were me, wherever my words go, I'd also want them to be the same all the time. That's understandable. So I see they've been asking the same questions I am now. I only read the entire first verse and I'm already going crazy trying to figure this out. Okay, I'll just continue. It says…The earth was formless and empty and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Well, if the Earth was formless, then how could it be there? Okay…okay, that's one definition. It must mean that it was disorganized when they used the word formless. So the Earth at that time was dark and barren. That definitely doesn't sound like the world wide theory that it used to be covered in volcanoes that constantly erupted for millions of years before they cooled down. If what the bible says is true, then these scientists are greatly mistaken. Then God said 'let there be light' and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day' and the darkness 'night.' And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day."

She leaned back in her chair, and as she continued reading, the colored portions of her eyes shrank without her even realizing it. She was concentrating on every word very intensely. She eventually stopped at the end of the twenty fourth verse of the third chapter.

"So he placed powerful angels to guard the garden. And to make sure they couldn't get back in there, he made a huge flaming sword that flashed back and forth. I'm assuming that this sword was as fast as lightning in order for it to flash back and forth. There's no way they would've been able to get back in. I can see that we were never supposed to know evil. I was right. We're the messed up ones. Man screwed up, and then passed their knowledge onto robots like us. Now we're messed up just like them. I also realized something very interesting about you, God. You could easily have made the world instantly, but you chose to take your time. It's hard for me to say why, but I'm sure you had good reason. I can also obviously see that you either got rid of the Garden of Eden either by destruction or by taking it away from the Earth or you hid it away and made it impossible for us to find it. For sinful people like us to enter there now, it would be like pouring dirty red wine on a pretty white dress. You didn't want us to defile it any further. That beeping means that I finally got a response," Jenny said as she activated her communicator.

She then asked "Did you get my message, Killgore?"

Killgore replied saying "I got it, XJ9, and I hear you loud and clear. I did notice for a while now that that these governments have a lot going on all the time that they don't talk about. Of course, I chose not to talk to you about this because I didn't think a patriotic girl who believed in her country like you was ready to listen. I'll tell you one major thing I do know about your country in particular that I do know though I don't know much more than that that's actually useful. About a hundred years ago, something major was in the works. At some point, something happened that made them completely halt their plan. Since then they reworked their ability to keep their activities a secret, and now they are so good at it that even if we all tried to get the information we're looking for, we likely wouldn't be able to. I believe it's virtually the same in this other world too. I'm sure that after robots like us came along, they were forced to raise their security measures many fold. I believe that when they saw how powerful Armagedroid was over twenty years ago, they felt backed into a corner, and then they took drastic measures to insure their secrets were kept safe. It's my guess that with every XJ your mother made, the tighter the security. I think it's safe to assume that whatever they were hiding a hundred years ago was nearly discovered by the public. And if they've been working on it since, who knows how big this thing is?"

"Yes, I see your point. If they want to keep that big of a secret from us, it can't possibly be for our benefit. What do you think about what the president said?" Jenny asked.

"Everything you said about her seems to be logical to me. I also agree that she could also not be one of the bad guys. It's very possible that she's just a puppet and doesn't know it. I gotta say though that this whole demon business really bothers me. That footage you sent of that Suija person is disturbingly convincing that he's likely a demon. I have one more thing to tell you, XJ9. Be very careful. I believe you may already be a target for your government. Don't provoke them unnecessarily to pull the trigger on you," Killgore replied.

"I didn't want to believe that, but it did cross my mind. Hearing this come from you lets me know that it's likely true. Thank you for your warning. You be careful too, okay," Jenny said with concern in her voice.

Killgore then smiled and said "I will."

He ceased the transmission. About a minute and a half later, she got a call from Misty.

"Hey, Misty. How you and Axl holding up?" Jenny asked.

Misty didn't answer immediately.

Concerned, Jenny asked "You okay, Misty?"

She then heard a strained coughing sound coming from Misty's end followed by an impact as if she dropped something.

When it was over, Misty answered "Sorry about that, Jenn. A really big seed from this fruit got caught in my throat. I had to cough it out. I'm okay. Yeah, me and this crazy nut are doing fine. How you and Sheldon doin'?"

"Fine, I guess. We haven't had much of an opportunity to see each other lately. We're not mad at each other, it's just all this hero stuff, and now these ghosts and demons are getting in the way," Jenny explained.

"Yeah. I hear ya. This thing is starting to spread to other planets. I even got a message from one of my relatives back home. She sounded really worried about the whole thing. Don't be too surprised if you get a call from Vega about this sometime soon," Misty added.

"I hope so. She doesn't call me much. That is strange come to think of it. She really doesn't call me much. I know she's a queen now, but is she really that busy. She's only called three times since Vexus lost her throne," Jenny explained.

"I gotta let you know what we all think about this crazy stuff going on. Me, Axl, and X agree that your president is acting really weird based on what you explained to your family. X won't be able to call you anytime soon because of the work he has to do, but he did say that he's been having a hard time trusting the president of this country over here as well for many years now, but he also said that it would be best if he not explain why for now. We all want you to be really careful. Don't let them become suspicious of you," Misty explained concerned.

"Right now I have nothing to worry about since this is a secure line. You wouldn't have even been able to call me right now if it weren't for those phones my mom made. But I will be careful. You guys be careful too, okay," Jenny said.

"Will do. Talk to you later," Misty replied.

"I'll be waiting," Jenny said before the transmission ceased.

"_What in the world is going on anyway? Why is their government under suspicion as well? This is getting weirder by the minute_," Jenny thought to herself.

As soon as she finished her thought, the phone beeped again.

"Aunt Wisteria. How are you?" Jenny asked.

"I'm fine besides that ghost that's been standing on that tree branch for the past three hours. It's not looking at us, but it being close to our house is giving me and Glenn goose bumps. Never mind that for now. Listen to me Jenny, if our government really is involved in suspicious activities, do not rush to do anything about it. Glenn agrees with me on this. This isn't a one on one fight with a mega villain. Fighting an army is much worse. You didn't have to fight but so many of Sigma's forces because you had so much help. If you had to fight all of Skyway Patrol at one time, even with your enhancer, you would be torn apart and scattered in the wind like a sand castle in a hurricane. The problem is trying to let the people know. Without substantial evidence they will never listen to you. They will, not might, they will think you're crazy. Skyway Patrol and the military are a worse problem to deal with because even if you do prove their government to be corrupt, they will all be faced with the decision of whether or not they want to keep their jobs. The government easily has the power to launch a convincing propaganda campaign to get the people to think you've turned evil and support the decision to have you destroyed. The time that one Skyway Patrol officer tried to get the order to have you terminated signed was nothing compared to what they're capable of. Do you understand what I'm telling you?" Wisteria asked worried.

"If Hitler can launch a successful propaganda campaign against the entire Jewish people in the 1940s, then I'm sure our government can do that against me with ease," Jenny answered.

"They don't even teach about that in your schools anymore these days. You must've done your own research. You understand what I'm saying quite well then," Wisteria responded sounding as if she was impressed.

"That's exactly what I did. I wondered why such an important piece of history was left out of our curriculums. No wonder so many people today are so ignorant. Our school system is messed up. They taught us a bunch of facts and figures, but they don't teach us as much about life as I think we should know. I say somebody's got some explaining to do," Jenny added.

"Yes. I also noticed that you learned more about life outside of the classroom and in battle. If my Glenn has never attended one of these schools, but can far outsmart the Bachelor's Degree holder in real life skills, then what does that say about the effectiveness of our school system?" Wisteria asked.

"Oh yeah. I hear you on that one all right. It's like I said. Somebody's got some explaining to do. I want you two to be very careful from now on just in case our suspicions are correct, okay," Jenny replied.

"Of course. Please let Noreen know that we want you all to live through this," Wisteria said.

"I will," Jenny replied just before the transmission ceased.

Jenny continued reading for about another five minutes before she responded to another beeping.

"Hey Commander Signas. How have you been?" Jenny asked.

"I'm not Signas," a familiar voice said.

"Oh! Sorry. You must be Marino. I haven't actually spoken to you directly before. I'm guessing Signas thought it was too risky for him to make the call and asked you to do it far away from the base instead," Jenny guessed.

"Well now, you guessed exactly right. You are a quick thinker. It's true that we never had a chance to talk, but I would like to sooner or later. But for now, it's time for business. A few of the Maverick Hunters are skeptical, but most of us, including me, agree that your leader is suspicious. As far as demons go, a treasure hunter and former thief like me, has some advice. From what I understand about demons is that you should definitely watch what you say and do around them at all times. I've never met one in person, but I did dig up some old text about them. They will constantly try to take advantage of every tiny little thing that you do, even the things that seem insignificant or don't seem to have anything to do with the situation. Think hard about how you word everything you say to them, even your questions. According to the text, they have been around since the beginning of time and are much more knowledgeable than we'll probably ever know. They will intentionally play dumb if they think they can get away with it. Unfortunately, I don't have any more information on them. I will see what else I can find. I wish I had more time to chat, but I don't. I have somewhere important I need to be. I'll talk to you later," Marino said.

"Thanks for your help. I'll talk to you then," Jenny said.

As soon as the transmission ceased, the communicator beeped.

Wow! Instant service, huh?" She said as she pressed the button.

"Hey there, Jenny. What it do?" Jason asked.

Jenny instantly frowned and said "What it do? For real, Jason? Is that all your high school education awarded you?"

In an exaggerated accent, Jason replied "Not at all. In fact, I'm 'bout to cop me a new whip and I'm gonna get me fake gold chain."

Jenny couldn't help but giggle a little at his comment. The more she tried to say something, the more intense her giggling, until it finally turned into full-blown laughter.

When she was done, she finally said "I've been so tense lately. I needed that. That brightened up the mood."

"I kinda figured you were stressed, so I did that on purpose. It really aint the same anymore now that school is over for us, unless we go to college. That'll have to wait for me though. For now, let's talk government conspiracy. Aint this a bitch? I was suspicious of those people at the top for a long time. I just didn't talk about it back in school because I already knew most of the people there wouldn't take it seriously. Actual useful information is hard to come by with as tight as their security is nowadays. Grace and Angel both have been trying to dig up info for quite a while now, and they only got a bunch of inconclusive garbled nonsense. What we do know for sure is that about a hundred years ago, the entire internet underwent a sudden overhaul. Practically overnight, so many websites were deleted or blocked. The people asked why, but they got some bogus response that they were actually stupid enough to accept. Beyond that, we don't really have anything useful. What made me suspicious of the people at the top years ago was the fact that so many of the politicians and presidents sorta kinda use the same rubric that advertisement commercials use to sell products when they run their campaigns and when they make their speeches. Have you ever noticed that strangeness?" Jason asked.

"You know, you're right. I did notice that. I just never thought about it that much before. How long ago did you notice this?" Jenny asked.

"I actually remember asking my mom about it when I was only ten. She immediately thought there might be something wrong with me. I guess that really doesn't run in the family. As far as demons go, I don't know much, but I will say be very damn careful. That is some scary freakin' shit. These ghosts are already bad enough. Anyway, I'll be in touch. Grace and Angel said hey too. I'll talk to you soon if I have anything important to say," Jason replied.

"Okay, then. Hey Jason. Maybe we should go smoke an L in the bathroom one of these days," Jenny suggested with a grin.

Jason laughed harder than Jenny ever remembered him laughing at her comment.

When he was done, he said "That was a good one, Jenny. I never expected that out of you. All right then; catch you later."

The transmission ceased, and then Jenny thought to herself "_Compared to all the things I've had to deal with since Sigma, Jason hardly even seems worth staying mad at. Grace and Angel on the other hand, they still have a bit of an attitude towards me sometimes. Why exactly? I do not know_."

About four minutes later, Jenny received an unexpected call.

"_That's really weird. I didn't let anyone else know about this_," She thought to herself.

She hesitantly pressed the button, and then said "Hello."

Zero's voice came from his end saying "Hey Jenny. It's okay, it's just me. Good thing you decided to give us all these little communicators. I know you weren't expecting me, but I just finished talking with Silver Fox. I know you weren't able to get a communicator to him without you falling under suspicion, so I went to talk to him using the frequency he gave only to us. I understand why you didn't decide to do this. It would've been too risky since he works directly with the military. I didn't tell him who is suspicious of this government or why, but he did tell me that if there really is a cause for concern, that we should bide our time. He also said that believe it or not, there are a lot more people working directly for the government that have these same concerns, but there are also many who are completely in the dark about these kinds of things. So, what do you think we should do about this?"

"You did well. It was a big risk by talking to him about this, but knowing that we are far from alone in our suspicions is worth the risk. What should we do? Marino told me a few minutes ago that demons are supposed to be very knowledgeable because they've been around for so long. The next time I confront that Suija guy, I plan on asking him what he thinks about all this. If that fire demon really is real, then I'll try asking him if I run into him first. There…is a ghost of what looks like a weird version of a dog in my room all of a sudden lying on my bed as if it's sleeping. Talk about a way to get me to go off subject. I'll deal with him in a moment, but for now, we should focus on trying to gather as much information and confirmation as possible without being detected. As I told you guys before, whoever you ask, make sure they are the type that seem to want to know answers themselves. It's too risky trying to ask people who seem to be willing to defend the government at all costs," Jenny explained.

"That's what I did with Fox. I didn't directly ask him about it right away. I had to find a way to get him to be on my page covertly until he realized what track I was on. If he didn't catch on to what I was saying, I would've left him alone after that. So you think we should just continue doing what we've been doing until we reach a breakthrough. I guess it's safer that way. I need to get back to some business of mine for now. In the mean time, ghost dog is your current priority," Zero said.

"You know, I think it's a dog, but it seems to have rat features. Never mind. I'll get back to you later," Jenny replied.

The transmission ceased. As Jenny stared at the ghost, she wondered who else she thought it might be beneficial to let know about this. She exhausted a list of people, and one person she guessed might know more than most was actually…

"But The Mudslinger's mind is messed up. He used to work for the media and held a pretty high-paying position at one time before he…maybe he started fighting against the newspaper company because he discovered something he probably shouldn't have. I hope it's still possible to get some useful info out of him. Oh yes, there's also Brit and Tiff. We have a better relationship nowadays, but I don't know how well they can keep a secret. I wouldn't want to drag them down with me anyway, so telling them probably wouldn't be beneficial…and…this ugly ass dog is starting to get on my nerves. Man that is a really ugly ass dog. Hey dog! I bet you can hear me. You ghosts usually ignore us when we're talking to you, but I bet you can hear me. Why are you guys here anyway? What's your game plan?" Jenny asked.

The dog just sat there not even breathing, though it sort of appeared alive. Jenny just assumed that they didn't need to breathe our air. It didn't respond to anything she said.

Frustrated, Jenny stood up, and then asked "Are you one of Suija's men?"

The dog was still unresponsive.

"Okay then, are there more demon's like Suija here on Earth?" Jenny asked.

A couple of seconds later, the dog finally opened its eyes and stood up on all fours. It turned to face Jenny, and then one of the windows to her room opened suddenly.

Jenny didn't take her eyes off the dog. She grinned instead.

The dog made eye contact with her, and then it said in a male voice that sounded much deeper than anything Jenny expected to hear "If you had taken your eyes off of me, I would have pushed you against that desk behind you and then left out of the window. You are brave to still be facing me in such a straightforward manner. I'm not very strong, but most who have heard me speak have run away from me screaming. I have no obligation to tell you anything, but realize that you learned one very important thing about us. If you say the right things to us, we find it very difficult not to respond, so use this experience like a clue to the answer you're looking for."

The ghost immediately ran and jumped out of the window once he finished not giving Jenny a chance to say anything else to him. She ran after him, but the window closed before she got to it. She looked out of the window but couldn't see the creature anywhere.

Behind her, across the room, the door opened with XJs 3, 5, and 6 running through it.

"You okay, Jenny? We heard a loud scary voice and your window slamming," XJ5 yelled.

As Jenny continued scanning the outside, she replied "It was weird ugly ghost dog. It said what it wanted to and then jumped out the window. I asked it if there were other demons like Suija in this world, and that's why it responded to me when it refused to respond to anything else I said. It's my guess that the fire demon is a much bigger possibility because of this encounter I just had. It's nowhere to be seen now. It moved so fast."

She turned around and then asked "What do you girls think?

"I'm thinking first of all that it's scary that we had yet another ghost in our house. Other than that, I guess there really is a much higher possibility that that fireball thing you saw was that demon from Tuck's book based on what he said. You don't seem nearly as scared this time as you did with that first ghost. Actually, you don't seem scared at all. What gives?" XJ6 asked.

"For some reason, seeing one of them in the form of a dog didn't scare me. I felt more of an annoyed feeling because how comically ugly that dog was. That was an ugly ass dog," Jenny replied with a grin.

XJ3 asked Jenny in Morse Code "You're finding this to be really funny, aren't you?"

Jenny did what she could to hold in her laughter. When she finally calmed herself, she then said "I need to treat this thing more seriously. It told me that if I say the right things to them, they'll have a difficult time trying not to respond. It seem like a trigger of some kind to me. I think that was the same thing that happened to me when I asked Suija about God. It just seems that way. In fact…I have somebody I need to talk to about these kinds of things. I need to go talk to him tomorrow. Yeah, it's that guy at that church I told you about. If you want to come along, it's okay with me."

"Are you sure he's not one of them?" XJ5 asked.

"It's because of the whole church atmosphere that's making you nervous, isn't it? He's a human. I checked it out when I met him. I was nervous the first time too, but he's not going to do something extreme like tie you to a chair and brainwash you or anything. It's not like that at all. If I thought he was dangerous, I wouldn't invite you to go with me, and I wouldn't even go back there myself in the first place," Jenny explained.

One by one, the three hesitantly agreed.


	12. Chapter 12

They weren't given the chance to go to the church. Instead, they, with some extra help, had a date with Suija.

He was spotted inside of a restaurant in the middle of a crowded city in the middle of the day. He hadn't caused the people to start panicking since they didn't know who he was in the first place. He did manage to turn quite a few heads because of his appearance. Most of the XJs and some of their friends stood outside while Zero volunteered to go inside alone. Of course, they were all wondering why this information wasn't revealed to the public.

As Zero made his way into the restaurant, he saw that Suija was sitting at one of the bar seats. He was sitting alone because the other people in the restaurant felt nervous about being too close to him. Zero walked over to him and asked "You mind if I sit here, man?"

Suija looked up at him and answered "Whatever you wish."

Zero sat two seats away from Suija, which was close enough for the two to have a decent conversation. Some of the people in the restaurant noticed this and some of them made comments ranging from whether or not they knew each other to noticing that they both had a lot of hair.

The waiter walked up to Suija and handed him his plate of spaghetti and meatballs, and then turned to Zero and asked him with a smile on her face "What would you like, Maverick Hunter?"

"I'll just have some orange juice for now," Zero answered.

"_This is an interesting dish. How did they manage to come up with such an idea for a meal_?" Suija thought to himself as he took his first bite.

"I gotta know. How do you manage to keep your hair like that? It's amazing," Zero commented.

"I was going to ask you the same question, but then I noticed that yours is artificial. If you must know, I use lots of herbal hair relaxers and really big flattening iron," Suija replied followed by laughter.

Zero laughed along with him to keep from seeming suspicious.

"Yeah right," One man said in a very low volume sarcastically.

"So, where are you from? I can tell you're not from around here," Zero commented.

"I've spent a great deal of my life in Japan. I know who you are now? I remember your face, but not your name. You're from that other world. What was your name again?" Suija asked.

"The name is Zero," Zero answered.

Just then, Zero noticed that the large bands around his wrists no longer had water around them. It was no wonder the people didn't freak out.

Suija then said "That's right. I remember now. That's a fascinating name. I wonder what your manufacturer was thinking about when he decided to name you that. Zero is the value of nothingness…yet, you are sitting right there. Or is it that Zero is really…"

He was cut off by the sound of the waiter "Here's your juice, sir! I'm sorry of I interrupted your conversation, but would you like anything else, Zero?"

"This'll be fine for now. Thank you," Zero replied.

As the waiter walked away, Suija asked "What was I saying again?"

Zero deliberately lied saying "I don't remember. As soon as I saw my juice, I completely forgot what you were talking about. I really like orange juice."

"Yes. That is a nice drink. You know something else I just remembered. I saw a photograph of you standing next to the daughters of Dr. Wakeman. Do you actually know them or did you just work for them for a little while on a case?" Suija asked.

One little boy of nine years old said surprised "Wow, dude! You must not watch the news. He's really good friends with them. They all saved the world from that Sigma guy. I can't believe you don't know that."

"If a person lived in a cave for many years, would he know about the biggest event ever while he was there? Of course not. I'm not saying that I lived in a cave, but I have been in seclusion for quite some time. The details are complicated," Suija explained to the boy.

"What does seclusion mean, mom?" The boy asked.

His mother answered "It means that he's been living in a place where he didn't have a chance to see the outside for a while. Excuse me, sir. Did you happen to be in the military? That's the only reason I can think you would be secluded for so long. I just don't understand why you decided to dress so flashy. Military guys aren't usually known for that."

"I would rather not talk about why I was away for so long right now. As far as dressing this way is concerned, I just thought it fit the way I look. I had to find something to match my hair," Suija explained.

He then turned to Zero and said "There is something that is troubling me, Zero. If you are such good friends with that Jennifer, then why hasn't she told you about me? Come now, do you really expect me to believe that you chose to sit next to me purely by coincidence?"

By now, many of the people in the restaurant had quieted and began staring at the two.

"What's going on here?" An elderly woman asked worried.

This sudden quieting caused a ripple effect that made everyone in the restaurant quiet down and start staring.

Suddenly, Zero became very serious when he noticed that Suija was no longer smiling as well.

Without looking in his direction, Suija asked "Hey, boy. You want to know something interesting? I just figured out what happened here. Zero came here to figure out if I am what I say I am."

"What are you? Are you an alien? You don't look like a human to me," The boy commented.

At this point, Zero couldn't figure out a way to prevent this situation from worsening. He doubted any of the others could've either if they were in his place.

"You have a very good eye, boy. I'm not a human," Suija answered.

"What are you talking about? You look like a human to me," The boy's mom commented with a worried tone.

"You say that because you've been conditioned by all that you see around you. Only certain people can see that I'm not quite what I appear to be. Your child is still honest with himself and with others, so he can still use his sight to see me. Even honesty isn't enough, you have to be gifted," Suija explained.

Suddenly, the boy began backing away.

He hugged up against his mom and said "He's making a really mean face at me."

When the people looked at him, they saw no difference from before. As far as they could tell, he looked the same as before with the same grin.

"Don't do anything stupid. You are well within range of my weapon. I could activate it and cut you down faster than you can blink if you give me a reason to," Zero warned.

A few people began leaving the restaurant out of fear.

"Tell them all, boy. Tell them what I am. That voice you're hearing is coming from me," Suija said.

Suddenly, the front doors opened followed by Zero's friends.

Jenny pointed her laser arm at Suija and said "Whatever you're planning, don't even think about it."

Everyone else in the restaurant was very scared at this point.

The boy's mom raised her voice and demanded "Look! Whatever you're doing to my son, stop it now!"

Another man stood up and said "Hey, pretty boy blue man. I don't know what kind of games you're playing, but you need to leave before I drag your ass out myself."

"You couldn't if you tried. Now tell them what I am, boy," Suija commanded.

The boy took a deep breath, and then yelled "If you will stop screaming at me. I'll tell them. He keeps saying over and over that he's a demon."

Zero reached behind his back and grabbed his saber as the people suddenly became very alert at what the boy said.

"You did well, boy. All you had to do was tell them the first time and this would've been over much more quickly. Now that we've gotten past that detail, let's move on to the next part," Suija said as he slowly raised his hands outwards, but not fully stretched, palms and fingers pointed casually upwards.

"Stop whatever you're doing, now!" XJ6 yelled.

Suddenly, the water surrounding the bands reappeared. Then the water in people's glasses lifted into the air slowly leaving behind the parts of their beverages that weren't made of water. Zero activated his saber and positioned the blade beside Suija's head.

"I thought we told you to stop. Will it require a permanent wound from this saber to get you to listen to reason?" Zero asked.

Without warning, the floating water split apart into many different pieces as fast as bullets. Many people, inside and outside, were either killed or seriously injured as a result. As soon as people started screaming, Zero swung his saber with the intent to injure Suija.

The moment the blade touched his arm, his entire body exploded into water and fell onto the floor. The puddle moved across the floor very quickly, and Suija reformed himself about thirty feet away. Many of the people who were still able to move normally were either panicking or trying to find a way to save those who were still alive.

Jenny then screamed "You hateful monster!"

"I'm a demon, not a monster. We've already covered this," Suija replied.

He then got into his signature stance. His right hand was elevated about half a foot above and about a foot and a half behind his head. His head was turned to the left to face them. His left arm was positioned facing his opponents with his hand pointed downwards and positioned in near his knees. His knees were bent downwards some and his feet were crossed and rested about two feet from each other. None of the others had ever seen such a stance. Without warning, he rotated the positioning of his feet in a rhythmic manner, and within a couple of second's time, returned them to the position from before.

"It's no surprise that you all showed up waiting outside to try and ambush me. Judging by what I'm seeing, I doubt any of you has what is necessary to win this fight," Suija commented.

"What the…I just don't get it. Normally people show some acknowledgment that they killed people, but you hardly seem to know you just did this…not an eyebrow twitch or even a grin," Melody pointed out with a look of confused disgust.

Suija looked Melody in her eyes, grinned, and then replied "Death happens constantly. Why should I pretend as though I'm surprised? Should I do this for your sake, some ridiculous attempt to make myself seem like I'm on your level? I'm older than all of you in this restaurant combined. Death is no surprise to me."

After observing their angry reactions for a moment, Suija then said "No wonder you haven't attacked yet. This delay of yours must be to avoid accidentally hurting these people. Why would odd beings such as you want to protect them? Aren't machines built for servitude? Since when does a slave want to protect its master?"

"You're getting on my nerves with your shit, Suija. You're just trying to exploit our negative emotions," Jenny yelled just before extending her other arm in his direction so fast that she needed to expel the air pressure from a small hole she formed in her shoulder that made a loud hissing sound.

Suija then yelled "SHUU!" in a high pitched growled tone as he jumped out of the nearest already shattered window. The others immediately followed him outside. The street had mostly become vacant by this point. There were some onlookers that kept their distances. Suija was standing in one spot in his stance waiting for the first person to strike.

Melody yelled "I can tell you are definitely not a weakling. That's why I'm gonna take you down now."

She transformed herself into her assault form and immediately began firing lasers and missiles at Suija. He jumped a few feet into the air and formed a sphere of hyper rotating water around his body deflecting the lasers. The missiles just exploded on impact. The sphere then returned to his wrists bands and he landed back on his feet.

"That is not ordinary water. That shield would have had to have been rotating at the speed of light to deflect those lasers without a reflective mirror-like surface," XJ8 explained as everyone stared at Suija in shock.

"You are correct. The water I produce isn't like the water of this world. I learned about what these lasers are and I quickly devised a strategy against them. I find it amazing I didn't think of such a technique before," Suija replied with a grin.

"I wonder what would happen if I put a whole lot more power behind a laser. If I try hard enough, I bet I could break through your shield," Jenny said with a wide grin.

"Let's find out then," Suija said before jumping high into the air.

Zero had taken the chance of trying to charge and slice Suija while he was looking away. Suija knew he was coming, so he jumped at the last second. Zero had been through this type of situation before so he stopped by sliding his feet across the ground so he wouldn't trip. He extended the length of his blade by three times and then jumped up after Suija. He didn't expect Suija to suddenly turn his body upside down and then rocket in a downward diagonal direction towards the others. This complex maneuver was so quick and unexpected that the others were too surprised to react effectively. Suija grabbed XJ8 by her head, flipped, and threw her straight forward all in one motion. Shortly after landing on his feet and returning to his stance, XJ8 had crashed into a wall after traveling a little more than the length of a football field.

Thinking that this was a great opportunity, Jenny rushed after Suija because his back was turned. As soon as she made it to him, Suija turned around, bent his upper-body to the side to avoid her punch, and then punched her directly in the mouth. She was forced to land suddenly, and when she did, Suija immediately kicked the outside of her right knee inward throwing her off balance. Without lowering his leg, he continued kicking her in her side, and again on the side of her head. She tried punching him with her left fist, but he grabbed her wrist and held it high as he began punching her in several different places.

After eight hits, Jenny tried firing eye lasers, but Suija then did a palm uppercut under her chin pushing her head straight up. The lasers fired anyway, but they traveled into the sky. Jenny lowered her head with her mouth open and a few of her teeth fell out. She screamed as she tried to jump straight up. Suija grabbed her left arm and pulled her back down before she made it even two feet off the ground. From the moment Jenny began fighting him until this moment, all this took place in only fifteen seconds.

He continued beating her up damaging her body all over. As soon as the others tried to help her, Suija formed a long wide blade of glowing blue water over each arm and swung them at her a few times at blazing speed. With each swing, the blades bent as if they were whips. As he burst apart into water and fell to the ground, Jenny's body fell apart into several different pieces. As she lay there helpless, the puddle of water Suija turned into moved along the ground and he reformed into his humanoid state on top of a car about four hundred feet away.

They all then heard what sounded similar to a jet flying in their direction. They all looked up to see that fireball Jenny was chasing after before zooming around a building and landing on the street.

A few seconds later, the fireball growled and transformed into a humanoid state of its own. This male form wore clothes that looked very similar to Suija's. The differences were the fact that his pants were a charcoal grey color and he had a green half-orb on his gloves. The cloth straps on his belt were yellow-orange. His wrist bands were black and constantly flaming. His appearance was quite different from Suija's. His skin was well tanned and his much shorter hair matched the color of his cloth straps. His hair was about a foot and a half long and was wild-looking, and it constantly moved sort of the way fire does, but much more slowly. His eyebrows were very thick and fiery looking unlike Suija's thin eyebrows. His muscle definition shown much more than Suija's as if he just finished a heavy workout even though both their muscle builds were nearly the same. He was a few inches shorter than Suija as well. His eyes were totally white. His grin was insane looking as if he was also angry. Every time he breathed out, a small puff of smoke would leave his mouth. His entire demeanor was like a ferocious animal.

"That must be the fire demon," Vexus said wide-eyed.

"How does Enja always manage to find me? He is a persistent fool. I'll see you people later. It's time for me to leave," Suija said with disgust in his voice.

Enja looked at Suija, growled again, and then began running after him at about a hundred miles per hour. Before he caught up with him, Suija took off flying into the air at blazing speed. Enja narrowly missed hitting Suija with a punch that completely destroyed the car he was standing on with a big fiery explosion. Neither the explosion nor the flames damaged him or his clothes. He looked up into the air and let out a growling laugh. He stopped abruptly, and then a second later, he began laughing really loudly and maniacally. His body then returned to its fireball state, and a couple of seconds later, he let out a loud excited yell as he took off into the air looking for Suija.

By this time, XJ8 had made it back to the others.

Kneeling down next to Jenny, Zero yelled "Hey! Jenny isn't doing so well over here. She's in really bad condition."

Concerned, they responded to Zero and ran over to see for themselves. Jenny's head was twitching constantly with a blank expression while the light in her eyes kept flashing. Her mouth hung open as she kept making slight strained "Ah" noises. She was missing the bottom half of her body near the belly bolt. Only her left arm remained attached which remained motionless and she had a very deep gash in the right side of her body with sparks flying out of it. Oil was also leaking out of her.

Frantically, her available sisters immediately began attaching cables to certain ports on her body. When they were done, Jenny's twitching slowed to a minimum, but the flashing in her eyes only slowed slightly.

XJ6 said with a loud distressed tone "That guy must be really fucking strong. Jenny is much more damaged than we thought: most of it is internal. I think she'll live but she's never been this damaged before, not even by Armagedroid. She tried jumping away from him to activate her enhancer, but he tore her apart before she had the chance. She's so scared right now. I don't she will die, but she thinks she's about to die at any second. We need to get her home now."

"We have to move her carefully but very quickly," XJ8 added.

Many people who saw this came running over to see if she was okay, but they didn't get close enough to interfere with them trying to get Jenny ready to be moved.


	13. Chapter 13

Jenny eventually woke up with a loud terrified strained scream. She had yet to realize it, but her body was still mostly ruined. It hadn't been long since she had been hooked up to her mom's equipment.

As the awareness of her surroundings returned roughly to normal, she looked to her left and said "Sheldon! I'm so…glad to see you."

She was surprised to hear that her voice sounded so scratchy.

"You had me so worried, Jenny. I'm glad your mom made you so well. Silver Shell wouldn't have survived what that monster put you through," Sheldon said as Jenny just realized that he was holding onto her hand.

A huge surge of emotion filled up inside of Jenny as she coughed up a few drops of oil, and then she said sounding as if she was going to cry "I really…thought…I was gonna die. He's too strong. He's too…strong. I don't think any of us can beat him. If we have to fight…that fire guy as well, we're…certainly done for. Suija is easily much stronger than…Sigma."

She stopped when she noticed tears coming from her mom's eyes across the room. Ms. Wakeman was concentrating really hard to do a complete diagnosis on how extensive a repair job will be needed.

Sheldon then said "All of us are really messed up right now. On your way here, the others said that you started screaming out so violently in your sleep. I know they were telling the truth because you kept screaming right until you woke up. They couldn't stand to see you like this, so they're all waiting in another room. Your mom is finding it really hard to comment right now."

"Thank you both for always being here for me," Jenny said as it sounded as if she had calmed down some.

Ms. Wakeman responded with a partial smile and a short outburst of crying. She didn't stop typing and she forced herself to stop crying very quickly.

"We'll be here for you whenever you need it, Jenny," Sheldon said.

The door to the room opened with two people behind it. XJ3 escorted William to the room. She was relieved to see her sister finally awake.

"She will be fine, XJ3. Please go tell the others now," Ms. Wakeman said.

As XJ3 ran off to tell the others, Jenny said "You're the guy from that church. What brings…you here, William?"

As William came walking into the room, he said "Is it okay if I talk with Jenny for a little while, Ms. Wakeman?"

"That's fine. It won't hinder her recovery to talk," Ms. Wakeman replied.

He quickly found a seat and sat near Jenny.

"How have…you been lately?" Jenny asked.

"I'm fine, but I didn't realize the extent of the damage he did to you. They say it took less than thirty seconds. This is just too much. Armagedroid took about two minutes to do this," William said.

"I was much weaker back then. I finally cleared that oil from my throat, but my voice is still scratchy. If I fought Suija back then, he would've punched right through me with his bare fists. I don't know where he gets his ridiculous strength from. He wasn't even trying and he did this to me. Mom…how come you were able to make Armagedroid's armor so tough over twenty years ago, but I'm so much weaker than him?" Jenny asked.

"That's because I can't get to any of the metal used to build his frame. I would need clearance from our government to use it," Ms. Wakeman replied with obvious irritation in her voice.

"I guess what you mean to say is good old Uncle Sam doesn't want Jenny to become too powerful," Sheldon commented.

"You…are exactly right, Sheldon. I told them years ago, before I started the XJ series, that I would need the use of that metal to make efficient global defenders, but they didn't want a robot that was so tough that they couldn't just…destroy whenever they decide to. Armagedroid was a major threat and they didn't want a repeat. I hate to tell you this Jenny, and it's partly because I didn't want to see it that way until now, but according to them, you're expendable. They see you as a useful tool for doing their dirty work, but nothing more. It's no wonder they make things so difficult when it comes to your citizenship and rights. I didn't want to think they were that messed up, but I can plainly see now that they really are. And what's worse is the reason that metal hasn't been used since is because I'm the only person who knows how to refine it and use it effectively," Ms. Wakeman explained angrily.

A couple of seconds later, Jenny started laughing quite loudly, and when she was done, she said "Well, it's looks like I did manage to learn something useful in school. When they would try to prepare us for tests, they would often tell us that the first answer you choose on multiple choice questions is often the right choice. I remember that, but I thought it was crap at the time. That's funny how much it explains my situation. That was one of the first things I thought of a long time ago when I was wondering about why I was beaten up so easily by Armagedroid. Everything you just explained flashed through my mind as a wild guess all at once, but I didn't want to believe it because I didn't think they were that bad. I wonder how many other theories of mine I'm right about."

"I'm surprised you're able to laugh in your condition," William commented.

"I was going to say the same thing," Ms. Wakeman added with a slight smile.

"Anyway, I see you're finding out that this world is quite a bit more crooked that you once thought. I don't need to tell you that then. Any of you want to guess what the problem with this world is?" William asked.

"Are you gonna say greed?" Sheldon guessed.

"I'll have to go with his guess," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Same here," Jenny said.

"Well, you're all exactly right. There's a lot more to it though, such as things like temptation and our generally rebellious natures. The question you should really ask is not what the problem is, but who the problem revolves around. This goes to say that this world didn't just become this way on its own. There are actually specific key players responsible for the reason why this world has become so terrible. Here's the key to this. Good works are generally done in the light or out in the open. Evil is generally done in the dark behind closed doors. These are obvious things we all know, but few people tend to think of this on a global scale. In the end, yes, it is a conspiracy. The problem is who is actually involved. Since no one can seem to answer that question, conspiracy theorists are usually shunned for their beliefs. If you couldn't prove who in the neighborhood is conspiring to get this one family kicked out, you're theory will be considered groundless. The problem with that is the fact that we're usually focused on much smaller conspiracies such as that. Oh my God! China and Yugoslavia are conspiring together to take over all of Australia! If you shouted that out in the streets, about ninety nine percent of the people that heard you say that would instantly think you're a strange person. The reason; they just heard this for the first time and you don't seem important enough to know such information even if it was true. If our government got on TV and said that, we would be about a hundred million times more likely to believe it. Why do we buy everything they tell us? That's a good question. Explaining that part to you now won't do you much good until you know who the ring leader is. All of it goes back to one person. That person is Satan. Let me finish. I knew you would react that way. It's just so drastic for me to say that, so that's why you reacted the way you did. There's something I've come to realize quite well. Reality is sometimes stranger than fiction. At the same time though, isn't Satan supposed to be the leader of all the demons? Wouldn't that include Suija? That alone won't convince people that Satan is the ring leader. Don't people often jokingly say comments about Satan being responsible for terrible things? Why would so many people say this all the time without there being any truth to it?" William asked just as XJ6 came walking into the room.

She then said "It's funny you should ask that. My friend Grace once described a dream of hers where she happened upon a village where she saw many people standing around a big hay pile with a small dead child lying on top of it. The mourning villagers were praying, and when they were done, the elder said that it was not the wrath of God that caused this child to be murdered. Instead, this was the influence of the king of evil. They must've had a really good reason for believing that. Oh yeah, and hi. We never did meet before."

"That's a good example. Isn't the murder of a child just so terrible? It's so terrible that you would wonder what kind of mental state would cause somebody to want to do that. The bible spells it out for us about how it started. Satan used to be known as Lucifer. Most don't know this, but Lucifer is translated as Morning Star. Sounds much more pleasant than the king of evil, doesn't it? God gave him the name Lucifer. He was actually once in charge of many angels who would praise God every morning. That was before he and his angels rebelled against God. In a shortened basic representation, Satan approached God saying that he wants to be God now. God was like 'are you serious? Are you actually challenging me?' Satan persisted and God decided to cast him and his followers out of heaven down to Earth. The actual story is more complex, but that's more or less what happened. They are now known as demons or fallen angels. That would mean that if Suija is being truthful about his claim, then he was once an angel of God. Since the time of their exile until now, Satan has been constantly trying to convince God that he should not love sinful beings like us. To do that, he's been finding ways to deceive and manipulate us all these thousands of years to become so sinful that God would want to abandon us altogether. Now…imagine that deception and manipulation on a global scale. Remember, he's had thousands of years of practice with the help of his demons. He knows how we think. He knows what our flesh is usually attracted to. He knows how we react to stimulus of many different kinds. You robots happened to be programmed with our likeness. You react as we do for many of the same things as us. He knows every form of BS we commit. His influence is so strong that he has managed to use our every basic survival method against us. Here's the worst part, he's managed to do it in stealth. You ever wonder why this world is so vastly different than it was only just a couple of hundred years ago? People don't think the same way or act the same way anymore. Cancer and disease has increased dramatically. Wars are way worse in these past two centuries than they have ever been. Divorce rates are ridiculously high and few actually see marriage as something sacred. People are constantly at each other's throats and/or are only out for themselves. Children don't respect their parents much anymore and vice versa. Children are killing their parents and vice versa. Famine has killed so many millions of people in poor countries. The list goes on and on. It's a constant stream of horribleness. Does this sound like the work of the king of evil to you?" William asked.

Everyone took a moment to contemplate what he just said.

XJ6 reacted the strongest, and she asked sounding as if she was on her way to crying "He's the cause of all this. I thought we just got worse and worse since Adam and Eve ate those fruits. I didn't know the reason it escalated this much was because of Satan."

"Let me ask you this. Why is it that most people seem to be under the impression that Satan and his demons have been sitting around on their asses all this time, and when they do work, they only give people reasons to tell ghost stories? That's not what they are about. It is the ultimate grudge match between God and the Devil. He's been doing everything he can to both ruin us and to curse God. He is the reason why so few people believe in Him and his son Yeshua. Jesus is the name that most modern people know him as. I'll ask you another question. If God is supposed to be so loving, do you think he meant for us to experience so much grief, so much stress, so much anger, so much hatred, and so much fear?" William asked in a very concerned tone.

They could all see that he was being totally serious about everything he was saying.

A moment later, Jenny replied "It's as I said before. God didn't bring so many terrible things into this world. We did it to ourselves. Now I need to include those demons. A great big mix of different rebellious beings making each other's lives worse is what we are. From time to time God may have showed us his wrath when he decided to punish certain people, but we've done much worse things to ourselves than he's ever done. I'm assuming this name Yeshua is ancient. I think it's Hebrew or something, isn't it?"

"Right. I'm not sure how the name Jesus actually came about, but he knows who you are referring to when you use that name. The J sound doesn't even exist in the Hebrew language. I gotta say though that…your understanding of the situation of our relationship with God and our place here on Earth is quite amazing. Not just for a robot, but also for a person of today," William commented.

"I've been spending quite a lot of my free time just trying to make sense out of everything. I'm discovering that there is a reason for everything. Nothing seems to stand alone anymore. Everything seems to be connected somehow, from the tiniest particle all the way up to the most complex issues that intelligent beings face and beyond. If there is a reason why that plastic bag sitting on that table over there came to be both what it is now and where it is now, then there must be an even more complex reason why this world is the way it is today. There's a reason why mom had the idea to make us. There's a reason why democracy came about. There's a reason for every war. There's a reason why sink water isn't really fit to drink. There's a reason why we felt it necessary to explore outer space. There's a reason why Hitler and every other tyrant had their big moment and then were brought back down or destroyed. There's a reason God decides to continue putting up with our crap. There's a reason for everything, even what we would normally consider unrelated or irrelevant," Jenny explained.

Both XJ6 and Ms. Wakeman stared at Jenny in surprise. A moment later, a beeping noise came from Ms. Wakeman's computer.

Ms. Wakeman then said "Before I say anything about that, I'm about to restore your sight to normal."

A robotic arm next to Jenny reached into a small open compartment inside of Jenny's head and performed the programmed procedure. Many clicking and whirring sounds later, and the next thing they saw was that the flashing in Jenny's eyes finally stopped.

As soon as the arm was removed, Jenny closed her compartment, and then said "Performing diagnostic, and…my sight is all good now."

"Okay then. Next will be your voice. I'm still working on that. A reason for everything, you say? Are you trying to say something like…let's say that if three thousand years ago, two dogs bit a man in the leg, somehow that led to a three thousand year series of events that caused my glasses to be made? It's a random wild example, but I think you know what I'm trying to say," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"That…is…exactly what I am saying. It's cause and effect. Going even further, that effect can also be a cause to another effect. It creates a never ending ripple. If that's not true, then why do humans still eat sandwiches today? Why did the technology that produced the first airplanes lead up to the most advanced space ships of today? And why is the design of the frame of my body similar in concept to ancient European battle armor? Believe me. I know what I'm talking about. I read that Leonardo de Vinci made robots of his own using suits of armor. He had them built in such a way that if a guy was pulling levers and ropes, that the armors would appear to be moving on their own. There were no computers at that time of course," Jenny explained.

She then raised her voice and said "I studied so much information, but do you know what troubles me the most? I know that everything connects, but why can't I piece history together with now? It's a complete puzzle, but so many pieces are missing. I believe some of these pieces were intentionally covered up or hidden."

Surprised, XJ6 asked "For real? Are you sure about this?"

Jenny looked at XJ6 and then replied in the same tone "Oh, I'm quite sure. Most of the craziest things that seem to have no real solid explanation involve the richest people in the world throughout all of history. If you think about it, we don't really no shit about them. We only know what the history books tell us. Poor people aren't hard to figure out. Okay, look at this little tidbit of information. How the hell did they become so…rich? You do not gain sixty or seventy billion dollars in your lifetime unless you were lucky enough to have invented computers or something similar in value. There have only been a few kings in all of history that have had that kind of money with the exception of King Solomon and possibly someone else. They all had to inherit that wealth from their family line. The computer guy got really damn lucky, and that money of his is just his bank account, which doesn't include how much he owns and controls. But even that doesn't explain what I'm talking about. I've ran through about a billion different scenarios in my head trying to gain such massive wealth in other ways within one lifetime or even ten lifetimes, and it's impossible. You want to know why it's impossible? It's because to gain that kind of wealth within only about ten lifetimes, doing it honestly isn't possible. I looked at every socially acceptable honest living method and did the math. It's just not possible. Selling fast food is not truthfully honest when you consider the damage to the populations' health. They make many billions doing that. Selling weapons is the same. If you notice, most of the richest people make their fortune doing terrible things. Guess who the worst are. And when you do, do not consider what is legal. Look at just the issue."

"That would be whoever is at the head of the most powerful banks in the world. It only seems honest because the law can't touch them for what they do. People complain about insurance companies making bogus unreasonable guidelines. People complain about these constant credit card scams. Both the insurance companies and the credit card people get their money from the banks. Banks do not loan money without a signed agreement. You know the weirdest part? When was the last time any of you have seen the contract to a multi-million or a multi-billion dollar business deal? Exactly, you haven't. Most of us just assume they have both the law and the best interest of humanity in mind when they write the conditions of the agreement. That's why we never ask to see the contracts. You know something I thought of recently? Our own government says that we have an 'Electoral College.' Really? Are they sure about that? Honestly, I'm becoming elderly now, and I have yet to see these people in all my life. I don't ever remember them showing their faces on TV. I don't ever remember them making official statements. I don't know any of their names and never have. It makes me wonder do our votes even amount to anything. Did we elect our presidents or are they picked for us regardless of our votes?" Ms. Wakeman explained.

"Wow! You're right. They rarely even mention them. If they are so important, then why don't they talk about them a lot?" XJ6 asked.

"Makes you wonder if these people even exist. I don't have an answer for who these people are, so I don't have anything useful to say about that. Ms. Wakeman; about how long will it take to repair her? I'm just curious," William said.

"I'm thinking that this will take about two more hours. I need to find a way to make her much stronger. I would like to simply hide her away from that monster, but if he finds her before I improve her, well, she probably won't survive a second encounter. Her enhancer is powerful, but he did this to her so easily. I don't think her enhancer is enough. If she deactivates her battle limiter, she'll likely overstrain herself and die even if she manages to beat him. Then again, she still might not be able to win," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"I know what she means. I never like to admit that I can't win a fight, but when a situation such as this comes up, I can't deny it. I believe that in order to beat him as I am, I would have to deactivate both my battle and my speed limiter to win. The problem is that I can't practice fighting effectively at full power without risking death. I could either explode or simply pass out and die at any random time. It really is a last resort decision. I had no reason to believe he was that strong and skilled before I attacked him. He dismantled me so fast. Oh, and just in case you're curious, William, the limiters were added recently when my mom improved my enhancer. She improved it too much basically. My solar energy absorbers will activate and go into overdrive boosting my power to extreme levels. Sounds great, but if I can't control it, I could miss hitting him many times. I really hope both him and that fire guy are against each other. If they worked together against me, I'm pretty confident I'd stand no chance," Jenny explained.

"The only thing I can say is good about this is that Suija and that other guy don't seem to be after world domination. Defeating them doesn't seem so urgent," XJ6 pointed out.

The door to the room opened and Zero, Vexus, XJ4, and Grace came walking into the room.

"I never bothered to mention this before, but I can hear things from pretty far away. I heard most of what you all were talking about, and I also heard Suija mention the other guy's name. I'm guessing you all didn't try to listen very well when he wasn't talking loudly. He called the fire demon Enja. The name Enja just has a weird sound to me. He didn't seem as intelligent as Suija either. You guys are saying that we are really in the shit right now. Mm hmm; I figured as much. Once again, we have to struggle for our lives if we want to win. Isn't this just a nice peaceful life we live?" Angel asked sarcastically.

"Yeah; nice and peaceful. I can finally agree with your lovely sarcasm for once," XJ4 added.

"It's good you're getting better, Jennifer. I wish I had charged him when you did. He might be strong, but we don't know how well he can take a hit," Vexus said.

"You can try, but he'll probably just turn into water like he did when I slashed him. I could've sworn that I made contact," Zero added.

"We could try to find a way to prevent him from doing that. Maybe he could be frozen in a block of ice. He might see it coming though," Sheldon said.

"The problem is that we don't know if any of our conventional methods will work. He isn't an Earthly being. Freezing him might make him stronger. Attempting to evaporate him might not have any effect. In the news, they said he told you guys that he was asleep for a couple of centuries. I wonder what caused him to sleep for so long. Did a group of people back then find a way to seal him away? I'm pretty sure you guys won't be able to convince him to tell us anything that will give you an advantage," William said.

"That's exactly the biggest issue when it comes to fighting them. We really don't know much about them," Ms. Wakeman added.

"What about God? Can't he just make them go away?" Zero asked.

"You must've been paying attention to our conversation as well. There's a big problem with this. If God was going to do that, he probably would've done it already. There is a reason he's allowing this to continue. To put it simply…I think he's testing us. That's the best guess I can come up with," William replied.

"Hmm…when you say us, I think you mean everybody, and not just those who'll be fighting them. I figured that if these ghosts are everywhere, then the test must've been given to us all, right?" Zero asked.

"Otherwise, only a few people would've seen them, or at least that's the way it seems. Don't assume God afflicted us with this problem on purpose so soon though. It's quite possible these things were summoned by another. If this only happens on very rare occasions in this world, then it would seem that someone who has a very evil and Satanic way of thinking must've went way out of their way to summon them. God has both caused terrible disasters and also allowed some as well. It all depends on the purpose. Don't think of him as a bad guy. If he hated us, he probably would've either destroyed us long ago or just let us die on our own. The mere fact that he allowed us to survive this long is proof that he still has love for us. If he ever did decide to hate us, we would have only ourselves to blame for our ways. But he won't. He already promised that he would save those who believe in his son," William explained.

"What is the deal with his son anyway? And why is it that he stresses belief or…faith so much instead of what we do with our lives?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Don't ever forget; he is concerned with our actions, but there is a reason for the faith issue. I'll ask you guys this. What exactly did Jesus do?" William asked.

After a few seconds of silence, Vexus replied "It's amazing really. I know more about your own religions than people who call this world their home do. Do I have…?"

Sheldon cut her off by saying "It's not that I know nothing about it, it's just that I don't know a lot. I don't want to sound stupid, but I'll give it a try anyway. I think he came here to sacrifice himself for us…or something, but I don't really remember why."

Jenny's eyes widened, and then she asked in an almost whisper "A sacrifice?"

Everyone looked at her surprised, and then she continued saying "I think I get it. If he was the only truly righteous person…then he…"

She stopped when she began to piece the most logical explanation in her mind together that she could think of. They all waited for her as they realized that she was experiencing a surge of emotion.

She then continued with a slight tremble in her voice "I haven't read very far into the bible yet, but I remember that the curse was placed on all mankind because of the fruit from that tree was so powerful that it gave them the knowledge of the difference between good and evil and how to commit both. You can't know how to commit evil acts if you don't know wha…better yet, you can't understand what good is if you don't know what evil is. You also can't know hot if you don't also know what cold is. If you never experienced cold, you wouldn't even have a name for it. Jesus knew what evil was, but he chose not commit to it. Not only that, but he was actually capable of sacrificing himself for more than one other being. People can't get into heaven with another person's ticket, but he was capable of sacrificing himself for everyone. We already screwed ourselves by committing the sins that we already committed. There needed to be a sacrifice to erase the effect of those sins. Otherwise, they are non-erasable. They must be forgiven. Jesus wasn't known by man in the Old Testament times, but since they had faith in The Father…hold on…if those people felt like they were never going to be saved, they probably wouldn't have obeyed God when he asked them to do things for him. I did see a few short passages in the Old Testament where God forgave certain people even though Jesus wasn't known to them. It might seem like I'm just rambling, but I'm trying to figure this whole thing out. Let's see…the New Testament is…"

"The New Testament is the description of how God made a new way for people to be saved. Originally, the Law of Moses, or the Ten Commandments, was the guideline for salvation, or so it seemed. In reality, God made that law to prove to us that we can't make it into heaven on our own merit, and to show us how sinful we are by nature. If you noticed, God called on people who were sinners and forgave sinners as well. It's basically a way of saying that without him, you have no hope. Jesus's actual purpose was to live a sinless and righteous life, and to offer himself as a sacrifice for our foolishness. He could've escaped that torture and crucifixion and let us all burn in hell forever if he wanted to, but he chose to obey God's plan. Not only that, how would we ever be motivated to want to follow a being who protests our ways without him showing us something so drastic? We are usually so thick-headed and stubborn that we need to see someone die in a gruesome fashion for us to want to change or even look to God for help. Jesus took the unimaginable weight of all of our sins and placed it on his own shoulders as if he committed them himself and paid the price of death on that cross. They have been paid for, but the remaining problem, is our recognition of what was done for us. The bible says that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. It's basically looking up to God and telling him that you recognize the importance of what he did, that you accept and appreciate what he did, and that you are eternally grateful. This also means that you must admit to him that you were wrong for what you've done, and that you do need his help, and that he is the only one who can help you. Besides, who else besides the one that created your soul in the first place can actually save you? Oh! Sorry for the suddenness of all this. I really got carried away. If you feel I've gone too far, I'll leave," William said as he realized how strong their reactions were.

"Well…you did just lay fate and destiny down on top of us like an eighty ton brick. I gotta say though. This is the first time I heard it in such great detail. People normally stop at Jesus died for our sins. You're the first person who placed all the other attachments together for me to see it in much greater detail. I see what you are saying though. You almost lost me until you said 'who else besides the one that created your soul in the first place can actually save you?" I've saved Jenny many times, and that's because I know how to better than any other mortal. I put her together piece by piece after all. Wow! Symbolism indeed: I just remembered cutting my hand on a sharp piece of metal inside of her body while I was still building her for the first time. I accidentally spilled a few drops of my blood inside of her body. The spark of life? Makes it seem like I gave her a part of myself in order for her to live, but I do remember the part about God being the only one capable of giving a being life. To say that my daughters are not alive in a literal sense is crazy to me. The way they all behave now is so much different than they way I programmed them to be. I never foresaw them changing this much. There's nothing in my programming schematics that allowed for complex things like peer bonding and romantic relationships, but surely enough, it happened. I don't know what reason God allowed them to make it this far, but I am grateful," Ms. Wakeman said,

"He was probably being merciful on you. You're not a bad person necessarily. What I mean is you've done so much to help people, but just like so many others, you haven't given God much recognition. If you feel like this is an attack, it's really not. But if you feel like this is offensive, imagine how offended you would feel if God himself told you this in person," William said.

"That…is a good point. If one of you told me…that Jason wanted…to break up with me, I wouldn't be nearly…as offended as if Jason…told me that himself," Grace responded.

"Oh that's right. Two people in one body. Is this one the real you, or is the other one the robot? I can't remember your names," William said.

Angel then responded "You say the robot as if…"

William cut her off by saying "Please don't be angry with me. I mean no disrespect. Judging by your response, you're the robot. I don't know of another universal term to describe you. In fact, to tell you the truth, I don't know of a better example of a non-human being that is probably the result of God's doing than you. You once said that you used to be a very basic artificial intelligence. Everything you learned was from being attached to her. You're alive because of her, and she's alive because of you. It kind of seems as though God sent you as a helper to aid her. She would've died without you. As far as any early robotics engineer could tell, it was supposed to be impossible for a robot to learn anything beyond what's programmed into them."

Angel then raised her voice and asked "That makes since, but I don't get what makes humans so damned special. What is it about them that makes God love them so much?"

"It's because…they were made in God's image. It's not about being human, robot, or animal, it's the fact that they were made in his image that makes them so special. The whole 'you must not murder' commandment was made because of what God said in the book of Genesis. Genesis: chapter 9: verses: 5 and 6 says 'And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person's life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. If anyone takes a human life, that person's life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.' That was one of the rules he made before the ten commandments. Listen to me, Angel, I know what your concern is. How can I not know? I'm a robot too. I knew it even better ever since I saw that first robot delete himself. Let's face it. We are not beings born in a womb, but that doesn't automatically mean that we do not have a spirit. In the book of Genesis, Adam wasn't born, he was created. Eve was born in the sense of being made from Adam's flesh, but she was not born from a womb," Jenny explained.

She reached over and lifted her severed arm in the air for the others to see, and then she continued saying "You see this? This is no longer my arm. Until it is reattached and it responds to my brain again, it will remain as a complicated construction of metal. It's the same as if a human lost his or her arm. As long as I am still alive, that's what really matters. That goes to say that this entire body you see is just that: a body. That's all it is: metal, wiring, and programming. God didn't send Jesus here to save flesh. He came here to save our souls. Wait! Robots never ate from that tree. Animals didn't either. That is interesting. Would that then make us innocent bystanders? I would like to think that, but I can't deny that we have also done some terrible things ourselves. I may be a hero, but I have said some nasty emotionally scarring things to people in my lifetime. I've killed a few of my own kind before. I attempted to kill that Phoenix guy. Animals on the other hand are too unintelligent, to our knowledge, to understand evil and sin. If any being on this planet is an innocent bystander, it's them. I remember one guy long ago saying that God will not punish anyone who does not understand the situation. I had no reason not to believe him. Small children and mentally retarded people don't understand the complexities of such a harsh reality. Actually, let's take this further. If animals have souls as well, then they are obviously not the same as human souls. The same would go for robots too, wouldn't it?"

Jenny's expression and her voice sounded as if she could cry soon.

William spoke up saying "You sound as if you didn't believe what you were saying when you asked that last question. You sound as if you are afraid that you are still just a body with no possibility of life after this world. Keep this in mind. The fact that you actually recognize God for who he is…that is a good sign. Does a rock know who God is? Does a microwave know who God is? We would normally think not, right? How can you know who God is and not have a spirit? If you ask an ordinary computer, it'll just give you a dictionary definition or a webpage link on the topic. But you are actually going way out of your way to learn about him. You cry when you think about him. You are actually concerned about the way he feels when we sin. It seems inconceivable to me that a completely soulless being would react the way you do when you think about God. It's as I said before. I cannot prove to you that you have an immortal spirit awaiting judgment, but if you do, you would be a fool not to do what you can to build a relationship with him and try to understand what he wants from you. Look at it this way as well. Angels are not human, but the ones who rebelled against him were judged and punished. By the way, here's something you should know. Jesus said that anyone who denies him before man will be denied before the Father. I believe that once you fully understand what the situation is, he will hold you accountable for what you say. Even if a gun is pointed at your head, do not deny him. It's better to suffer the pain of a bullet in your head than eternity in fire. Your best bet is to try to please him through faith in him and his son and hope for the best."

A few seconds later, Jenny said "I just remembered when Suija told me that I didn't know who I was talking about when I asked him if he knew of God's existence."

William leaned back in his chair and said "He is quite the thought provoker. I once imagined a situation where I was talking to God in person, and he didn't respond to me at first. I kept pleading with him to talk to me, but he refused to respond. Eventually, thoughts of his son Jesus popped in my mind. When that happened, God finally looked in my direction. I wonder sometimes if this was more than just a daydream. I was kind of zoning out at the time. When he looked at me, I gasped and said 'I am truly sorry, Lord. I should've showed my respect for your son before I addressed you. I thank you for giving us the gift of your son.' He finally smiled and asked "So then, what is it you wished to talk to me about?' After that, I couldn't think of anything else to add to it."

XJ4 replied "Isn't that interesting? I do remember somebody say once that Jesus is supposed to be our connection point to God. That may have been more than just a daydream. I just imagined God saying to somebody 'Who are you really talking to? You say the name God, but what if you're talking to that car you love so much? You treat that possession of yours as if it is a god pretty often.' So the guy then says 'Oh! Umm…yeah, that's what I'm looking for. You're the father of Jesus Christ. Am I addressing the right god now?' And then God replies 'Ah! Now we're getting somewhere. Yes. You are addressing me correctly. So, what is the order of business for today?' Yeah; I just kinda came up with that a moment ago."

"That's pretty good right there. It's amazing how quickly you thought of that," William commented.

"That is really something. So God has certain guidelines to go by when you talk to him?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"I believe so. I wish I knew all the guidelines, but I will say confidently that Jesus has a way of getting God to respond and act much more quickly than we do. It's not that he's lazy. Imagine someone asking you for help while carrying a dead corpse that you killed with them. You would likely look at them and ask 'Can that person you just killed receive any more help? Why should you get any?' All that sin we carry around with us needs to be overlooked for God to want to help us, at least in a lot cases. That's what Jesus can do for us," William explained.

"Because he already paid the price for that sin. You have surely been a great help to us. You've been a great help to me. I understand so little about him, but at least I understand this much. I agree that there must be a reason God put us here. I want to know what that reason is," Jenny said while staring up at the ceiling.


	14. Chapter 14

About four hours later, Zero came back into the repair lab to talk to Jenny, but he looked around surprised and said "She's really not in here. I forgot about that. She's been repaired for a while now based on what Ms. Wakeman said."

He left the vacant room and continued searching for her. He decided to make it easier on himself by activating his sensors. He located her and ran to where she was. She was with Vexus, Sheldon, and XJ5 in the dining room.

As soon as he opened the door, XJ5 said "You looking for someone, Zero?"

"Yes actually. Listen, Jenny. I got a call from someone working closely with Silver Fox. He kinda knows our situation after seeing how badly you were damaged by Suija in the news. He guessed that Ms. Wakeman wished she could get her hands on some of that metal she's restricted from using. It turns out that none of that is necessary to worry about. He first contacted someone in our world to see if we had something strong enough. When he told me that, I realized that I was stupid for not thinking of this earlier. There's a scientist in our world that has been refining the same metal that was used to build High-Max's frame for years now. He's managed to make it many times stronger than it used to be. Fox also discovered that his research findings involving that specific metal don't fall under that restriction of not being able to bring some of it to this world. Here's the issue though. He refuses to come to this world, but as far as I know, you have very little preventing you from coming to our world including the rest of your family. We also have to get him to agree to this arrangement. Is there anything that would prevent you from receiving an upgrade in our world and then bringing it back here?" Zero asked.

Jenny grinned very wide and then replied "Not…at…all. I don't know how much longer that'll last for, but if we do this quickly enough, I won't suffer the consequences if I take advantage of the old reliable Ex Post Facto rule. They can't do anything to me if the law is passed after the upgrade has been made. You hear all that, mom?"

Ms. Wakeman's voice sounded from a speaker inside of Jenny's body saying "That's an amazing find. That Fox man must really respect us if he's putting himself at risk like this. I'll have to thank him later. Zero, here's what you should do. Call your friend Axl and have him say that we're coming to visit both him and Misty. Also, have him contact that scientist using whatever connections he may have. We need to make sure no one knows we're meeting with that scientist."

"I got ya, but Axl doesn't spend enough time getting to know many people to have those kind of connections. The visitation part he can handle with flying colors, but I have much better connections than he does. I can have someone relay the message to him in no time. I'll be sure to talk to X first and see if he thinks it's safe enough for me to handle it and if he has better ideas. It won't take long either way," Zero replied.

"That's fine. Please try to hurry. Knowing our government, it probably won't take them very long to think of this. The fact that there's that separation in both our worlds' governments is the main reason for them not discovering what we're up to yet. They probably don't yet think we're willing to go through such great lengths to be so sneaky. Also, have any of you noticed that we haven't yet received a single call showing concern for Jenny's well being?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Now that you mention it, they normally would've checked up on me by now. I guess they don't consider me to be top priority anymore. It's either that, or they're trying to determine if I suspect them. I'm probably just being paranoid, but anything is possible, right?" Jenny asked.

"I'm discovering that with your people, much more is possible than most any other government I've dealt with. I've been secretive and sneaky to keep my subjects under control, but your people's realization of how frail they are has scared them to the point that they ended up developing ways of being sneaky and deceptive that I never even dreamed of. I tell you now, back when I invaded this planet for the first time, I actually thought you people were as all the media propaganda made you out to be. The more time I spend here, the more I see things that don't match up with your governments' claims. In short, your people are some of the greatest liars and cover-up artists I've ever encountered. Ruthless tyrannical dictatorships usually don't bother to be this discrete. If they are going through this much trouble to keep their mouths shut on their secretive activities, I find it very hard to believe they aren't up to something underhanded," Vexus explained.

"Hearing that coming from you means that we should take that possibility very seriously. I didn't mean that in a bad way," XJ5 responded.

"I didn't think you did. Zero, dear. Whatever you're planning on doing, you might want to be quick about it. The clock isn't exactly working on our behalf," Vexus said with a grin.

"You said that as if I was one of your subjects. Fine then. Whatever you say, my queen," Zero said grinning with a sarcastic tone before he went running out of the house.

As soon as the door closed, Ms. Wakeman said "I can easily imagine Vexus dressed like a dominatrix."

Everyone in the room blushed and reacted pretty loudly.

Very loudly, XJ5 said "I can't believe you said that, mom. I never blushed this hard in my whole life."

They could all hear Ms. Wakeman laughing on her end.

* * *

Axl sat in a chair staring out of a window at Misty's training exercises. He was smiling now, but he remembered being very concerned just the day before about how hard she was pushing herself.

Misty told him "With everything that's been happening in Jenny's world lately, I have this feeling inside that's telling me that I have to become stronger than I ever thought I could. It's like…it's like I know something big is coming. Please try to understand. I almost let us all down last time, and I can't let that happen again."

Axl then took a sip from his cup and thought to himself "_That whole event must've messed her up more than I thought. I gotta say though; I've never seen a being made of flesh do the things she can_."

Outside, Misty was in the middle of performing as many consecutive back flips uphill as she could and as fast as she could. The hill itself was about as steep as walking up a flight of steps and was about half of a mile long. It was grassy and had sufficient grip.

She had completed a total of two hundred and thirty one back flips in a little over a minute and was still going.

She then thought to herself "_I've never…ever experienced a strain like this before. If I were a human, I'd probably be dead…or the adrenaline rush might make me go insane_."

When she finally did run out of energy, she stopped and rested on her hands and knees looking up at the top of the hill that was only forty feet away. The strain on her body caused her vision to blur, and with every heart beat, her vision jerked. She could no longer hold herself up as her arms began shaking violently. She threw her body over and landed on her back.

Breathing so heavily that she wondered if her lungs would collapse on themselves, she thought to herself "_This is no bullshit. I feel like my willpower is the only thing keeping me from fainting. If I did faint right now, would my windpipe close up on me and kill me? I need to get my blood circulating more smoothly_. _Lying on my back like this can't be good for me_."

She slowly levitated to about a foot and a half off of the ground. She remained there for a little while. When her vision returned to normal and her heart stopped beating so fast, she rotated to her upright position and landed slowly on her feet.

Still breathing heavily, she said "Running up this…hill would've been easy. I need to be able…to do things my trainer never would've had me do. I miss her. Too bad she's gone. Still…there was something she was able to do that none of her students could. I know why she wouldn't teach us. This can be very dangerous."

Axl saw her take a stance he had never seen her take.

"_This is new_," he thought to himself.

Her feet were spread apart about four feet with her left foot forward. Her left hand pointed forward with her elbow bent. Her right hand was reaching up and back as far as it could and looked as though she was going to perform a typical karate chop, but Axl knew that stance was meant for more than that.

She retained that position for over a minute concentrating intensely. Abruptly, she stepped forward and swung her right hand downward nearly touching the ground as fast as she could. A few seconds later, she frowned signaling to Axl that it was unsuccessful…whatever "it" was.

"I've been trying for years to figure that crazy shit out. How was she able to make the ground split without touching it? I could do it by concentrating my mist into a single point, but I don't have fucking psychic powers or whatever it was she had. I can only control what I'm made of. I'm much stronger than her physically, so what is it that she had that I don't?" She asked frustrated.

She then thought to herself "I felt my strongest when I was crushing that fake Jenny's wrists…which was something I shouldn't have been strong enough for. For some reason, I can't seem to recreate that feeling. My anger was so incredible. I spent so much time over the past couple of years lounging that I feel like I've become soft. I haven't been desperate in a long time."

She then heard a beeping noise coming from Axl's body, but just barely. She went flying over in his direction and stopped at the window.

Axl was talking to someone asking "So when should we expect you?"

A few seconds later, Axl said "All right then, I understand. I'll have it done before then. See ya when you get here."

The beep was heard again signaling the end of the call.

"Yeah, that was Ms. Wakeman saying that she and her family are making a trip over here. She didn't explain the details. She said she will when they get here and I could tell it's urgent. They want me to tell the authorities here that were expecting them here for a visit that had been planned months ago. What do you think? Maybe something crazy just happened," Axl explained.

"I can say this. Lying to their own government isn't there style. They probably wouldn't do this if they didn't think they could get away with it. For them to take this risk, something crazy probably did just happen. In fact, the more I think about it, it must be bigger than we think. But it's probably the most convenient lie they could think of. They are telling the truth about visiting us, but they're here for much more than that. The authorities don't need to know about that," Misty replied.

"I thought so. Whatever just happened, it wasn't reported in the news over here…if it was even in their news in the first place of course. Whatever you do, don't mention this to anyone besides those we know we can trust. You know how they're having problems trusting their government? Well, the thing is, X has been suspicious of our government here for quite a while now, though he has yet to explain it to us. I think he feels as though it's not safe to talk about it in detail," Axl explained.

"I'm gonna say this bluntly, so here goes. Both your worlds' are fucking strange. You have entire societies full of unrealistic thinking stupid ignorant people. Most of the realistic thinking people live in societies that are considered before modern. Did you know that most other alien worlds out there don't take your people seriously?" Misty asked in a calm tone.

Surprised, Axl replied "Whoa! What the…man…I didn't expect that. That's about as blunt as you've ever been. But you said it so…as if you've known this all your life, like it's textbook material."

"Well, I was never issued a textbook on this in school, but it is commonly known throughout the galaxy. I wasn't aiming at you or your friends. You guys have lived a hard life where you didn't have time to sit there and be conditioned with all that nonsense they show on TV. In fact, you only watch TV occasionally, and it's usually only the news. My planet outlawed receiving signals from Earth's satellites once they realized the damage it does to people, especially young people like me. I wouldn't spend so much time thinking about making myself pretty and doing the things Earth girls do if it weren't for that shit I saw on the screen. I've seen how the fashion models have managed to ruin many girls' self-esteem in my world. I've seen how constant advertisement has managed to make people into such irresponsible spenders. I've seen children do stupid shit like running around killing people with swords because they saw it on a movie or on those Japanese anime shows. Guns are only used in times of war on my planet, but Earth or America actually made it rather easy for children to obtain a gun. They way your worlds' are, I wouldn't be too surprised if the same kind of people who were behind your television is the same people that X is worried about," Misty explained.

"When you say it like that…man…no wonder that one Hunter a long time ago kept telling me to learn to read between the lines. I get it now. It means there's a reason for everything, even the little stuff. But I see X's problem now. It's not about what you can find out. It's about what you can prove and who you can convince. For a long time now, X has been complaining about what his efforts are really accomplishing. Sigma is gone now. So what? What about all the other problems? I get where he was going with this now," Axl said with a look of realization on his face.

"No wonder X usually looked so sad back then. He seems happier now, and I think that's mainly because of the fact that people aren't living in fear like they used to. X is a very observant guy. I also noticed how he doesn't act like one of these TV zombies that so many of your people have become. I think that's how he noticed something was wrong. Then ther…oh…maybe that's why your government was questioning why the Maverick Hunter organization needed to around anymore. They probably suspect that many of your teammates suspect them," Misty guessed.

"And they know that we have a powerful voice that the people would be willing to listen to if we could ever bring up substantial evidence against them. I don't really know much about it, but I really hope X is wrong," Axl said.


	15. Chapter 15

A doorbell rang, and the little boy Suija spoke to in the restaurant ran over to the front door of his house and opened it. Through the screen, he saw a familiar face.

Overjoyed with his eyes watering up, he yelled "Jenny's okay!"

Jenny held in her emotional surge and smiled back at the boy knowing how much he cared about her. The boy's mother came running from inside the kitchen to see. When she opened the screen door, the little boy ran and hugged Jenny's waist.

With a smile, his mother said "I wish we had a bio-mechanic that could repair our bodies if we got your treatment. You're very fortunate. I'm glad you're okay though."

"Yeah, well, if it makes you feel any better, I really thought I was gonna die. It's not a guarantee that she can fix me every time. If I ever die for real, the Jenny that I am is gone forever. If a new Jenny is built, I might look and sound the same, but I'll be a much different person. The Jenny I am now will be gone forever," Jenny explained.

The boy looked up at her face when he pictured what she just said.

He then said "Then…you're just like us."

His mom then said "I don't know how he understands these things at his age. He's been like this for a few years now. Oh! I see. That's why you're here, isn't it?"

"I wanted to put your minds at ease, but I also need to know what it was your son saw and heard. It might help me understand how to fight that monster," Jenny replied.

Nervously, the boy's mom asked "But if he tells you, won't that monster come back to hurt him for revenge?"

Jenny's smile turned into a slight frown, and then she replied "I thought of that, and then I remembered something. Every person around you stretching four booths to your left and to your right were all killed, but both of you survived without a scratch. All of them died, but you survived. I think your son saved your life. I think what Suija was trying to say was that your son was much more pure hearted than most people. I don't know much about God, but I think he saved both of you for a reason."

Jenny's voice was trembling slightly by now, and both the mother and her son stared at her surprised.

"So…you're saying that maybe God won't let Suija hurt him?" The boy's mother asked seriously knowing that she's never had much faith.

A few seconds later, she knelt down next to her son and told him "Listen, Jerry, go and find something to draw on quickly. Show her what you saw."

Nervously, Jerry said "Okay."

He ran to his room and found some paper and a pencil and ran back to the living room as quickly as he could. He pushed the paper against the wall and started drawing the picture his mom instructed. A couple of minutes later, he ran over to Jenny and showed it to her. His mom walked over to see it as well and her eyes widened when she saw it. In the picture, Suija had a face similar to his humanoid face, but his body was long like a worm with no legs. His arms looked similar to human arms, but their shape was not definite and Jerry wrote a note beside one of the arms saying that they were wavy like water. The most disturbing part was his grin. It was unnaturally wide with shriveled looking lips and flat gapped teeth.

"That is gross. Is that the real Suija, Jerry?" His mom asked.

"I don't know. He started glowing and I saw him change into that thing, but it looked weird like…like if the picture of your TV started smearing…or something like that. It wasn't really like a TV, but that's the best I can think of. He then started screaming really…really loud. I didn't know I was the only one who could hear that," Jerry explained.

"What did his voice sound like? Was it like a human voice, or a monster?" Jenny asked.

"He sounded…he had two voices. He sounded like a human. Two voices were going at the same time and they were saying the same thing. One voice sounded like his normal voice, but it was normal. His other voice was screaming, but it was really loud, like a fire truck, when they blow that horn," Jerry replied.

"That loud? We must be really impure if we couldn't hear something like that. I notice you guys don't have a TV. It's no wonder he isn't bad like a lot of these other kids," Jenny said.

"The TV? It looks like I was right for not letting him watch that stuff. I got rid of it shortly before he turned two. I noticed how it makes people turn out, and I didn't want him to turn out like that," Jerry's mom replied.

"It's just too bad I didn't choose to avoid it. My mind is so clouded with all this…stuff. Here's how I know something isn't right about it. You ever notice how regardless of what country the speaker comes from, they always use the same system of whatever you call that stuff they use to make what they call effective advertisement?" Jenny asked.

"Wow! I've lived for many years, and I've never heard a human say anything like that, but you picked up on it. I saw it, but I couldn't…you know…say it the way you just did," Jerry's mom replied.

"I'm gonna tell you something real. Everybody knows that TV is filled with fiction and that it's different from real life. Every time I go on a mission or I do my save-the-world routine, it's never like the shows on TV. It never plays out like that. I even went as far as to imagine a show based on my life, like a cartoon. I look at it like it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever thought of. It'd be nice to have my own show, but I would never want the events to play out like they do in cartoons. Then I realized that they would never show it on TV because of all the unpleasant things that have happened in my life. Even the news is weird. Something about it all seems fake, but it also seems deliberate, like they know how bad it is for people. But why aren't they being held accountable for it? It's because it's not causing an immediate major problem? It's obviously major to me. This has been going on for so long that the people don't really think it's something that needs to be stopped. It's not something I can stop. I can't get the world to agree that it's something that they need to give up. It's like convincing somebody to give up something they're addicted to. That can take years for one person. Imagine convincing everybody. I'm not talking about getting rid of TV. I want them to stop showing so much ridiculous garbage on the screen all the time," Jenny explained.

"You really are maturing from the way you used to be. You're thinking more like an adult: a real adult, not just a legal one. Most so-called adults nowadays have jobs, businesses, houses and whatnot, but they're still very childish. But then again, aren't we all?" Jerry's mom asked.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Some of those things we loved back then we just can't seem to let go of. Shoot, mom just gave me the signal. I really need to get going. I'm sorry I can't stay here any longer today. Thanks for showing me the drawing, Jerry. I'll be sure to come back and visit sometime soon," Jenny said before rubbing Jerry's head.

"I hope you beat him. He's mean. He hurt those people. I don't like him," Jerry said.

"I don't like him either. I'll do my best to try to stop him," Jenny said as she slammed her fists together even though she wasn't feeling very confident.

* * *

When Jenny and her family and friends made their way to the other world, even Zero was surprised at just how well the plan worked out. He's the type that realizes how very few plans involving possible exposure or danger actually work out exactly as planned. There's almost always at least one complication. This usually happens when many people are involved. They made it all the way to their destination without a single person acting suspicious of them or even trying to follow them.

The weirdest part…was that now he was even more worried than before.

Inside of an underground basement that both Axl and Misty built months ago in case something needed to be done in secret, everyone gathered there to conduct their business.

The scientist they needed to meet with, named Professor Noris said "It's amazing how only the two of you managed to hollow out so much solid ground. This basement is easily seven thousand square feet. You even had the time to build support structures. Most people would never go through this much trouble without payment."

"Normally, they wouldn't. Normally, we wouldn't either. We just figured that just because Sigma was gone, that didn't mean our battles were over for good. This basement is totally secret. We didn't let even our friends know about it until now. Commander Signas doesn't even know about it. We figured that we would be better off having a place to store large amounts of supplies as you can see over there on the other end of the room. We also figured that this room could be used to hold a lot of soldiers temporarily if needed. Plus, not just the practical side of it all; we also just wanted to find something to do with our free time," Axl explained.

"Now that I see this place, I noticed that Misty's muscles are becoming much more solid. Just try not bulk up too much and end up losing your girlish figure, Misty," Jenny commented.

With a blush, Misty said "That's why I'm focusing on athletic workouts instead of heavy lifting. But enough about all that. We know something big happened back home recently. You're not here for an upgrade for no reason."

"Yeah, well, I almost got killed by a demon this morning. Talk about a plot twist," Jenny said.

"Oh shit. I almost thought you were joking at first. You're being serious. They certainly didn't announce that in the news. So what does this creep look like?" Misty asked angrily.

Jenny sighed and said "We don't have time for mystery and suspense, so I'll just show you these."

Her mouth widened and became flat like the photograph slot on a camera and began printing out photos of everything that happened. Misty, Axl, X, and Professor Noris looked at the photos of the demons, and then at the diagram of the details of the extensive damages that Suija caused and how quickly he managed them.

"Even I thought you were joking, Jenny. If this guy is this strong, we have a real problem on our hands. He's certainly not someone we can risk fighting one on one. I can say one thing that's good about all this. You're not still freaking out. I can tell you're actually very calm about all this. You nearly died, and a few hours later, you're up and already ready to fight again if you have to. Basically, you're becoming a lot like us," X explained with a smile.

Jenny grinned and said "You're actually right on the money with that one. But I'm not gonna charge him like I did before. Without backup, I probably won't make it next time. I really need your help guys. I don't have the right to ask you guys to put yourselves in danger, but I don't know if I can do it alone."

"You don't have to ask me. I'm gonna fight anyone who tries to destroy us. I've been doing it all my life anyway. I know Zero agrees with me," X said.

"Don't worry. I'll be ready for a fight any time," Zero said.

"I'll do what I can, but I don't think I'm strong enough to handle those demons. If it gets too dangerous for me, I'm out of the fight," Vexus said.

"Ditto," Melody added.

"I've never fought any supernatural beings before, but I guess it can't hurt to try. I'm not too bent out of shape about the possibility of dying. It's not like I haven't thrown myself into situations like that many times before. I'm not really helping you because you asked. I've wanted to fight him ever since I saw how badly he messed you up. He needs to pay for what he did, plus it seems like a great challenge," Axl said.

"Your honest about your motivations as usual, Axl. Of course I'll help you, Jenny. Why do you think I've been working out so hard lately?" Misty said.

"You already know you have our help" XJ5 said.

"Thank you all. Oh, but where is Killgore anyway?" Jenny asked.

"He's like trying to find the only flea in a room full of a hundred wooly mammoths. I'm sure he'll turn up when we need him," X replied.

"I hope he will," Jenny said.

"And I would've tried to upgrade him too if he were here. You thought that all those boxes I brought here were only filled with the equipment necessary to upgrade Jenny? I'd like to try to upgrade all of you, but only if you want me to," Professor Noris explained.

"I didn't know you took all of us into consideration like that," XJ6 said.

"I really don't want those demons rampaging in our world one day, so I'm trying to get this over with as quickly as possible. I'm not looking forward to dying any time soon. Not only that, you Wakeman girls are slowly but surely getting a pretty big fan base here in this world. You have no idea how many scientists here are going to be jealous of me knowing that I was the first here to work with you, Ms. Wakeman. Of course, I won't tell them about this until it's safe to do so," Professor Noris explained.

With a slight blush, Ms. Wakeman said "I didn't know we were becoming this popular here. Well then, I guess I'll just have to try not to disappoint an admirer. Shall we go ahead and get to work then?"


	16. Chapter 16

Several hours worth of trying to figure out how to merge both technologies together, including the strength enhancers and armor upgrades, was a very tiring task. They finally finished their project. Professor Noris thought they would finish sooner, but Ms. Wakeman thought they wouldn't finish until later on the next day or possibly longer.

Wiping sweat from his face with a towel, Prof. Noris said "I already said that you are brilliant earlier, but I feel it necessary to say it again. I can see you weren't exaggerating when you said your own government was limiting your potential. You did in less than a day more than you managed to do in years."

"Thank you for your compliment, but I'm still worried that this won't be nearly enough. We managed to improve their technology by a substantial amount and I still worry. I wish we knew how to take it further," Ms. Wakeman replied.

"We probably don't have the time necessary to do enough research to make it happen before the next fight. We need to go ahead and outfit them with what we have as soon as possible. As soon as they wake up would be the best time…which reminds me of just how much I hate staying up past 3 am," Prof. Noris said.

"It is very late, but it's nothing I'm not used to. By the way, what are your thoughts on cracking X's and Zero's protection?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Those two…well…I mean…ah…I don't really know if it can be done. I don't know how Dr. Light did it. It's well over a hundred years into the future and we still can't figure it out. One of my colleagues crashed five top-of-the-line supercomputers trying to force his way into X's hidden data. It wasn't forced on X. He was the one that requested it be attempted. He left that place disappointed. It's like…it seems like a wall or a knot was placed between the circuitry making it impossible to get through. If that were really the case, he wouldn't function properly. But to tell you the truth, he probably didn't mention this to any of you, but Zero alone most likely has more than enough power to defeat those demons. I'll tell it like this. Some years back, Zero risked his life to save the world from being destroyed by a space colony rigged to crash into the Earth. When his space shuttle crashed into ground, he climbed out of it with a whole new personality that he never showed us before. He had energy levels that went way off the charts. He was saying that he must destroy X and then continue Dr. Wily's plan. X managed to knock him out before he learned to control his ridiculous power. Since then, Zero has been his usual self with no recollection of that event. We figured that X also has extraordinary power hidden inside of him as well, but we have no way of proving that," Dr. Noris explained.

"That sounds amazing. Maybe I should try harder to crack their data then," Ms. Wakeman said excitedly.

"I wouldn't try to reawaken Zero's hidden data if I were you. You might think you can find a way to control him, but I don't think anyone can. That other personality of his was nothing like this one. He was so much more savage and bloodthirsty and completely unreasonable. Suija seemed to do the damage he did to your daughter just to prove that he can. The other Zero would've done it specifically to make her suffer," Prof. Noris warned.

"I'll leave Zero out of that equation then. It sounds far too risky. As for X, I've done many things I thought were impossible before, so maybe I can finally be the one to do it," Ms. Wakeman said optimistically.

"I think you're a great scientist, but as I said, I don't really think it can be done," Prof. Noris commented.

Ms. Wakeman grinned and then asked "You really don't think so? I did discover this about his protection. It seems as though the access point is impossible to locate, but the truth is that his protection is constantly reconfiguring itself and masking itself at the same time. In other words, his protection is constantly adapting and making itself even harder to crack."

Surprised, Prof. Noris said "Everyone else has treated that theory as just an idea, but you said it like you know it to be true."

"Not only am I sure about that, but I also know that his protection has many layers. So far, all of you have been treating it as if it exists as a single layer. Each layer seems to be stronger as they get closer to the access point. I estimate about eight layers total," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"You seem so sure too. I can say that I have very little reason to doubt you. Oh yes, and one other thing. It was pretty amazing how you managed to outfit that Melody girl with one of Dr. Light's inventions. I'm surprised even X figured out that it was even possible to do that with a person from another dimension," Prof. Noris said.

"That one was surprisingly easy. Dr. Locus managed to make one impressive robot, but I've had much more experience than he had," Ms. Wakeman pointed out.

"You make me want to push myself harder and become an even greater scientist," Prof. Norris declared.

Ms. Wakeman smiled and said "I look forward to it. Well…I think it's time I sleep for a few hours."

"Good night then," Prof. Norris said as he turned and left the room.

* * *

After all the installations and necessary adjustments were made, they all felt like a field test was in order. So they all headed out to the same field that Misty was training on.

"It's really too bad that Grace can't be upgraded as easily as we can. Otherwise; she'd likely be here with us right now," Vexus pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Anyway, I think we should get started. Whenever you're ready," Jenny responded as they both took a stance.

A pause alongside mostly total silence followed for a moment. They both charged seemingly at the same time. They closed a gap of over a quarter mile in less than two seconds. Jenny's right fist landed on Vexus's left shoulder at the same time Vexus's right fist landed on Jenny's left cheek. Half the armor on Vexus's arm shattered and flew in all directions at the same time her left shoulder was wrenched out of its socket. At the same time though, the armor on Jenny's cheek shattered while two of her fingers broke.

They both stopped and turned towards everyone else.

"Ahh…well…that wasn't expected. I knew you two would be faster and stronger, but your outer shells are too weak for your strength," Prof. Noris said.

"My fingers are broken on the inside," Jenny clarified.

"Then I stand corrected. I'm also assuming you braced yourself as much as possible because you feared Jenny's strength, right Vexus?" Prof. Noris asked.

"Getting punched by her is a lot scarier than you might imagine. That's why I did that and that's why the joints in my right arm are still at one hundred percent," Vexus explained.

"Yeah, but we've never seen Suija take a hit before, so there's no way to know how many more adjustments will need to be made," Jenny pointed out.

"The thing is though that we can only make your outer armors somewhat stronger than they are now for the time being, and that isn't accomplishing a lot. What you all need to focus on in your training is learning to control your nano-machines better in a heated moment to avoid shattering. I wish we could control our skin that way," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"Oh, I get what your trying to say. We're too used to allowing our armor to act on it's own for our protection. We need to actually focus on the spot that's about to take a hit with every exchange. At the speed we're able to fight at though, that's going to require a lot of processing power and concentration," XJ4 said.

"It most certainly will. Not only that; speaking of which, you two might want to practice repairing yourselves without our help just to see if you can. Also, try to find ways to repair yourselves more quickly if you can. There aren't any pit stops in a fight I'm afraid. That luxury is reserved for racing. But…then again, a pit stop arrangement would be a great help. Maybe I should try to design something like that that will follow you to the sight of the fight but will also stay out of the sight of your opponents. It's really damned interesting that I never thought of that before now. It would've saved me a whole lot of trouble. I've probably spent well over a few month's time of my life just manually repairing damages," Ms. Wakeman said.

"We've thought of that before, but it's much more difficult than you might think. Unless this thing can do an impeccable job at repairing damages, what's usually the case is that you need to transport spare parts like limbs, which requires a lot of space. You'd probably need something as large as a van or a bus to do the job and that is usually a hard thing to conceal," X explained.

"Yes, I see your point. If they see this bus roll up and they think for a second it's there to aid you, they would try to destroy it before any repairs could be made. I'm really going to have to put some thought into this," Ms. Wakeman said.

"But hey, if you can find a way to make it happen, it could probably revolutionize the way we handle missions," Zero pointed out.

"If such a thing were around back when I fought Armagedroid the first time, I wouldn't have had to worry about dying so much. I didn't say this before, but I was a lot more afraid of him than Suija at the time. At the time, I kept charging knowing that I was about to be defeated, so it gave me more time to develop a fear of him. In Suija's case, I didn't have enough time to realize how much danger I was in until it was too late. I mean, not only that, but Suija looks like he's made of flesh, and Armagedroid was not only metal, but he was also a giant. I had little reason to believe Suija was a real threat. Yeah…that click you heard just then was one of my fingers realigning. I need to get a better hang of this. I do feel like this is taking too long now that the issue was aired out the way it was minute ago," Jenny said as she looked down at her hand.

"Yes, and if Suija was the global defender instead of Jenny, he would've demolished me in no time at all. Look at how much stronger Jenny was than me back then. I'm now stronger than she was, but these upgrades of hers keep me a few steps behind," Vexus said grinning.

"Well…hmm…" Jenny began to say before trailing off.

"What is on your mind?" Misty asked.

A moment later, Jenny lowered her hand. Her eyes glowed for a moment, and then she formed a standing hologram about five feet in front of her from the ground up. The image looked like her, but her blue was instead a dark shade of green and she had an evil angry looking expression.

"What's your point?" Ms. Wakeman asked confused.

"Let's try it this way. Pay close attention," Jenny said.

The same image began moving. It started performing a series of fighting moves. A moment later, Vexus's eyes widened and she pointed at the image.

"What is it, Vexus? XJ7 asked.

"That odd image of Jenny is performing my moves. I used them on her before," Vexus replied.

"That's why I remember them so well. Just imagine for a moment…your Suija taking my place scenario sounds interesting, but what if you were blue instead, and were in my shoes. And then that weird version of me you see here…was the real me, but I was the queen of the Cluster trying to take over Earth?" Jenny asked.

Shocked, X asked "But why that scenario? You make it seem like this is the more likely one."

"There's really no way to know for sure, but I've noticed something weird about the way this reality of ours works. Any of you ever notice that strange phenomenon where…how should this be said…when Vexus came to take over the first time, there just happened to be a scientist alive at the time that was capable of building a massive robot powerful enough to drive her and her army away? How come…it didn't just so happen that my mom wasn't there? Vexus likely would've had no problems taking over Earth. All things considered, she would likely still be queen. Let's take it further. If Sigma never existed, would Misty and Axl ever have met? What if Misty was never there for Axl to meet? What if one thing that happens in one dimension affects another? What if Dr. Light was never born? And what if that caused me never to be born? But back to me and Vexus. Why is it that when there's a villain that's very powerful that shows up, how come there is usually someone there to stop them at some point? And before you go there Vexus, I know you seem more confused than most of us because you got away with your reign for so long. That's why. You won many many times. Eventually though, I came along. I didn't know how big all this was until recently. I'm not saying that I'm this chosen one or anything. I don't really know where I fit into all this. But me being the bad guy, and Vexus the good? That is interesting, but not too unbelievable. I have just as much capacity for evil as Vexus has for good. It has been more than proven for Vexus, but for me…imagine if I was as evil as Vexus once was. What if things took a terrible turn for the worse, and then…..years down the line…I…decided to go down that path?" Jenny asked.

As the image kept repeating its sequence, there was a brief moment of silence as they all contemplated this.

Jenny deactivated the hologram and placed her hand on her face, and then she said in an irritated tone "Life is so fucking complicated. Too many questions and too few answers. Too many weird things to consider."

She took her hand off of her face, opened her eyes, raised her voice and said "And now I have to fight demons? Are you fucking kidding me? I don't even know if any of these upgrades matter. Aren't they spiritual beings? Yeah, he can touch me, so that should mean that my hands won't go right through him like a cloud of mist, but how do we know if anything we have can actually hurt him?"

"So, are you saying that you won't fight him till the end to make sure he doesn't keep hurting people?" Zero asked.

"Of course not. I'll keep trying to find a way even if it kills me. I just hate how complicated this all is. This crazy shit started out as a funny little idea that if I had to fight a demon, would I be able to win. Tuck was reading a story about Enja and I thought it was just a story. Now it's a real issue? How come we all happen to be the only one's throughout all of history that have to fight them? There's like no evidence pointing to anyone in the past fighting them besides random villagers, but they are not powerful enough to beat someone that strong. Uuggghhh…this is just pure insanity," Jenny growled.

A moment later, Axl spoke up saying "You know…I often treat life like it's not that complicated. I guess the circumstances of life usually don't weigh very heavily on my emotions. I realized it after being with Misty as long as I have. I was a guy with very few people closely connected to me for a long time. Zero, X, and the other Hunters…well…they're my friends, but…family? I…didn't really give that idea much thought. I never stood in one spot long enough to develop that close a relationship with anyone. With Misty at my side, well…she's the first to give me that feeling. Losing my friends would be terrible, but Misty…man…that's a feeling I never want to experience. I felt a sense of separation from this world most of my life, as if I'm an island all to myself, but not anymore. Now that I am truly a part of this world, I'm seeing how complicated it all really is. I see it like a priceless fragile valuable, like a crystal chandelier. It takes so much effort to maintain it, but very little to make it all crumble. I then became aware of just how fragile I am as well. I am a part of it all, right? With that thought in mind, I know Suija and Enja both can be defeated. I don't know what it will take, but I know it can be done. One thing is sure though, the way I see it, there probably isn't a single one of us that can beat even one of them alone. As long as we've known each other, we have yet to get together and really learn to work as a well organized team. We Hunters can do it, but I don't know the rest of your moves and capabilities, and you guys don't know ours very well. We need to learn to fight as a team. I like handling things on my own, but the way the event where Jenny nearly died plays out in my mind based on the diagram, I think that guy would shred me like an unwanted bill. I rarely feel genuine fear when I fight even the most powerful enemies, so I use that excuse to fight alone because of my pride or whatever it's called. That guy scares me, and we have to deal with two of them. Whatever you guys are feeling right now, we need to put any objecting feelings aside and learn to fight as one unit. I say this because I know its life or death this time. I don't just know this. The feeling is sinking deeper inside of me more than it ever has before."

A moment later, Misty responded "Hearing that coming from you…I mean, you're one of the most fearless guys I've ever known. So hearing that coming from you is more than enough for me to take your words seriously. You three are an interesting bunch. X seems to fight the most cautiously. Zero will rush in like a storm, and you will do the same, but you'll be grinning like your having the time of your life. You haven't had this serious a look on your face since our fight with Sigma. In fact, I say you look even more serious. We can't let the fact that we see Jenny standing there as if she didn't just get totaled recently fool us. That did just happen. So…I don't know about you guys, but I'm taking his advice. Actually, it's more like a warning."

"Well then, if we plan on heading Axl's words, we might want to start now. We probably don't have much time left anyway," Melody pointed out.


	17. Chapter 17

They returned after only one and a half days. One of the only reasons this trip was overlooked with the issue of not being around in case the demons attack, is the fact that most people just felt as though they knew that it would be a while before they make another move. Even though the Earth governments usually think with a so-called realistic mindset, there are actually many religious people working in the governments. They are less than two percent of the population, including those working in lower positions, but they are there. Most of them said that as far as they know, demons aren't known to rampage. If they attack, it's usually not everyday. Not only that, but the way Suija went about killing those people didn't seem as though he planned on being hasty about whatever he's planning. Most of the population for some reason felt inclined to agree. Not only that, but the way Suija handled Jenny…well…let's just say they're not that confident in her being able to win anyway.

The one question that has been raised though, is why is it that these two demons are able to harm people physically. There is no such record of any mention of other demons having this ability. Many ancient documents have been quickly uncovered concerning these demons since they showed up with the help of many intelligence agencies around the world, and though the information is little and fragmented, they are believed to be the only two ever to have this ability besides the time in the book of Job where God allowed Satan to attack Job but he refused to allow Satan to kill him. Then there's also many cases of people being possessed by demons as well.

So then, is God allowing this, or is it some other circumstance? Most people began asking the same questions. It's the only piece of evidence the world had so far.

* * *

It of course also wasn't but a few hours before the United States government got wind of Jenny's upgrade. Jenny's friends and family naturally didn't mention it yet though they would've had to pretty soon anyway, so how they managed to find out was a real mystery.

As they looked at one of the president's advisors through the monitor on Ms. Wakeman's main computer, they tried their best to not to grin or make it seem obvious that they went out of their way to be devious.

"So Ms. Wakeman, when exactly did you plan on letting us know about this? I know you have no obligation or requirement to tell us, but don't you think you should've let us know ahead of time?" The man asked.

"I would have within the day, but I can't help but wonder why you rushed so quickly to call us about it. Is this one of your most important concerns?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Well…issues concerning XJ9 are high priority. We hope to insure that the people aren't in any real danger from what she does. We need to make sure that isn't something we need to worry about," The man said trying to keep his composure even though Jenny could see every one of his muscle twitches letting her know about his pitiful attempt at being politically correct.

"That's what all this is for. I needed an upgrade so my next encounter with the enemy won't turn out like the last one. Since we also realized it was free of charge, we felt it was a good thing to keep our treasury department from having to pay for it. Our military needs all the resources they can get, so I figured it was a good move," Jenny explained.

"We appreciate your consideration, but money isn't an issue. We just need you to understand that people need to know when you plan to take risky measures like this. For all we know, Prof. Noris isn't the most trustworthy man. He could plant a virus inside of you to make you go rampaging through the streets out of control. I'm surprised that you would trust anyone besides your mother to operate on you," The man said.

"You make a point, but I figured that my mom would check all of his programming before installing anything into me, which she did. I mean, I saw her while she was doing it," Jenny explained.

"I thought you guys weren't willing to trust a stranger to operate on you like that either. I'm talking about you three: the Maverick Hunters," The man said.

"I feel like I can trust Ms. Wakeman well enough. I know she wouldn't try to steer us wrong. If anything, I really didn't see it as a productive decision to remain as we were. If Suija is as strong as our calculations have determined, it would be even riskier not to do everything we can to put a stop to him. If he ever felt that no one could stop him, there's no telling how much damage he could do. I know we don't know his intentions, but after seeing those people get murdered like that, how can anyone truthfully say that we shouldn't take every measure that we can," X replied.

"Well, it's great that you guys have the well-being of the people in mind. We just need you to remember that there are reasons why we have to keep track of what's going on. We have no reason not to trust you. I can tell that your only concern was the well-being of the people. We just need your word that you won't do anything reckless like that again. We don't want to assume that you have questionable ulterior motives in mind. You've never given us reason to believe that before, so we have no reason now. Please tell me that you won't do that again," The man pleaded.

"I can see that I shouldn't have made you worry like this. I just didn't think anyone would assume that something bad may come out of this. No that I understand your concern, this type of thing will not happen again. I should've thought about it more thoroughly before making such a hasty decision," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Okay. Now that that is settled, I am needed in another office," The man said before the screen turned to static.

"I'm starting to pick up on the intricacies of this game. It's a complicated one all right," XJ6 said.

"I here ya. It's like a ah…he keeps using such vague statements. Instead of saying 'We need to make sure that isn't something we need to worry about,' why didn't he try to be a bit more specific?" XJ4 asked.

"There are obviously reasons to keep track of our activities, but why did he not then give us that list of reasons. He did say that they need us to remember that there are reasons, but what are they?" XJ8 asked.

"It is also inconceivable that if you think somebody probably has ulterior motives in mind that you don't have a list of possibilities. He didn't take the time out to let us in on that list," XJ7 added.

Jenny then spoke up saying "I knew…that ever since I stole that music player thing from that store in the mall years ago that they would be watching me even more closely from then on. I knew that it was a bit strange how they would put a thousand times more news coverage about me stealing something as opposed to a street bum stealing something. I know I'm a big issue, but come on. That's just too much coverage. Then I got to fearing that someone might use everything I do to destroy my image even though I didn't articulate it in my mind that well back then. The public knew I was young, and since I didn't steal anything of real importance, they didn't really care that much. Then I screwed up trying to capture The Mudslinger. On top of that, I attacked Brit for making such a huge deal out of it and for all the other times she pushed my big red danger button the wrong way. A screw up is a small way of describing that decision. Once again, they knew that she and that one other guy I stuffed in a trash can once were the only two to ever repeatedly push me as much as they did. But each time, I never hurt them too seriously. The public saw that even in my fit of rage, I showed restraint. At the same time though, if I was just any robot, they probably would've demanded me to be shut down. I saved the world so many times, that they logically knew that each situation had to have been because of prolonged provocation regardless of how they felt about me. Since then though, my public image shines about a hundred times brighter than ever. They will all likely believe that we only had their best interest in mind by the decision we made a couple of days ago. In fact, I have virtually no doubt they will. On top of that, if this were to become a big enough issue, I would tell the public how they tried to keep me weak by restricting access to that Armagedroid metal, then they would look at the government funny and ask why they would put them in danger by not allowing me to become stronger. Then they would realize that the law has been in effect since before I was even born. They would start asking even more questions. It's not secret knowledge. It's just that since they never spoke to the public about it, most people are unaware since they don't read law books much anyway. With the reality of appearing to be the bad guy in the situation or just plain irresponsible in mind, they probably won't mention this to the public at all. I also have virtually no doubt that they know that we realize this as well. They know we're not stupid. The good thing is though that they don't yet realize how suspicious we are of them concerning other issues or if that is the case at all. Oh yeah, and I need to mention how surprisingly good of a relationship with the other world the people here have. They would likely have little reason to think we did anything underhanded. The people here know that soon word will reach them that there is a real danger of those demons' influence reaching them, and then the people there would love to know that I'm keeping their best interests in mind as well. I'd rather not keep this information from the public, but for now, I don't want to start a war between us and the government. So if somewhere down the line they all realize we kept this from them, I would then have enough interesting things to say about Uncle Sam to tip the scale in our favor. And…since they are the government, they can't pull the 'plead the fifth' card out of their hats. That is technically a right of theirs, but they won't be given that option. I say that this is why he didn't push too hard just a minute ago. He knew that there was a great risk involved."

She then placed both arms behind her back, leaned her head all the way back, and pushed her midsection forward until everyone hear a loud click.

She then said "That was my back. This upgrade is a little difficult to get used to. I had to realign something. I didn't even realize there was a problem until a few seconds ago. XJ8 hits pretty hard."

"You used to never think this much about these kinds of issues in the past. You seem to have this all figured out," Ms. Wakeman said smiling.

"That is pretty impressive, but just know that your theory is not at all foolproof," Zero pointed out.

"Yeah, I know. It's just that when I think of the consequences of this, it doesn't seem so bad from our angle. However, I do also know that people who attack the government tend not to live very long. I can't claim the government did it, but all those cases do seem a bit too coincidental if you ask me. So, most likely they will let this go if I do, and they might even go as far as to distract the public by keeping their minds off the issue enough to keep them from thinking of asking about it. And as an added bonus, they'll then keep trying to manipulate me and my family because we're as useful as we are dangerous. I get the feeling that we should try to keep our tongues on this issue and other similar ones that may arise in the future as much as possible. The moment we try to confront each other directly, there will be many major problems to deal with suddenly dropped on our shoulders. Oh, and by the way, there was one other thing I haven't mentioned yet. What was it he said about money again?" Jenny asked.

"He said…that money is not an issue," Sheldon replied.

"Hmm…" Zero said with a serious tone as he knew Jenny had something to say about it.

"He said…that money…is not…an issue. Money is not an issue. What is he talking about? Of course money is an issue. Money is always an issue. My regular maintenance cost is ridiculous. It was the way he said it that made me raise an eyebrow. Well, not literally, but I felt like raising one. Aren't they the ones constantly talking about our economy? Money's not an issue. What a load of crap. He said it so plainly as if he's never had a real concern about it in his life. But his reaction did confirm my curiosity, or rather my suspicion. That's why I mentioned the part about money. So of course he's not paying out of his pocket to fix or upgrade me, which means that he knew I was referring to our government especially since I mentioned the treasury department. So, about us. It costs a lot to keep us in such great condition. But then again, plenty of money is always left over. What about all the money that is constantly wasted on crap in this country? I don't know of all of the transactions that are made daily, but when I use my imagination, it seems to me that the yearly gross domestic product of this country couldn't possibly pay for it all. In fact, that big sign that constantly updates our debt situation seems very inaccurate to me. I just have this hunch that with the amount of money we are supposed to have and earn annually, that in actuality, we are much farther behind in debt than what's posted. As I was basically saying about rich people before, when I include us into the mix as well, I just don't think the money adds up the way they claim it does. Makes me wonder if the economy crisis thing that happens every now and then is just another big distraction to keep us worried about our own problems while they do what they want behind closed doors. What if they have way more money than they claim? I would think so considering how lavish their lives usually are compared to ours. Such and such person in the government ends up in the news being accused of spending large sums of money on vacations. People complain. Okay, so then; did that person walk into the treasury building and steal the money for the vacation without anyone noticing? Of course not. Somebody had to have authorized it. Then these people never end up in jail for this kind of thing. You know the feeling I get from this? It's like when you ask somebody for a few bucks and they give you that I got it, but not for you shit. Perhaps the people at the top of the totem pole see all those tax payer's dollars as their own personal piggy bank," Jenny explained.

"Oh my God!" XJ4 said surprised.

"I avoided talking about it for this long, but now that you took the words right out of my mouth, I'm going to say that I have had that same suspicion about both our world's governments for a long time now. Whenever Signas asks me to ask for money from our government back home, I end up talking to many different people over the years. After a certain number of inconsistencies, I began to wonder why. It didn't take me and Signas both too much longer to look each other in the eyes with that serious realization look and then tell each other not to talk about it openly. I know I can trust you guys though," X added.

"I thought about all this before, but I didn't take it that seriously. I guess I was right after all in assuming that I'm not the only one that thinks this might really be the case," XJ6 added.

"Well then, if he thinks money is not an issue, than what if…they don't feel they will ever exceed their limit?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

Jenny grinned really wide and stared her mother directly in the eyes and Ms. Wakeman grinned a little herself.

"I know you've lived long enough to know how wasteful they seem to be. They spend money on space shuttles when they could be buying meals for needy families. Then we find other countries around the world doing many of the things we do and having many of the things we have. I've been to Paris before, and besides the culture and language, I could barely tell the difference between that place and here. So then, how close are these…ties…between countries really? What if there is and endlessly circulating money supply between us and them? To make it even more insane, what if there are projects that they complete without ever actually paying a dime? Because there is too much even for a robot as capable as I am to keep track of, what if they keep us thinking that everything that happens is actually paid for? What if a lot of things are just…authorized? Money is not an issue, right?" Jenny asked while still grinning.

"Like mother like daughter. We think alike," Ms. Wakeman said.

"That is just insane. Not you, but the thought. So then, where is all the money coming from to pay everybody off?" XJ5 asked.

"Who knows? Probably a well of nothingness. As long as everybody has a place to stay and food on their plate, why would they be concerned? In today's time, the year 2094, the world's GDP is over one hundred forty eight trillion dollars. Yeah right. I don't think that much wealth exists. I don't think that's been accurate for a long time. Back in the year 2009, the world's GDP was over sixty trillion. I don't believe that amount existed back then either. The amount of money that people burn into thin air like toilet paper does not lead me to believe such wealth is an accurate measurement," Jenny explained.

"That would mean that eventually all of that will come back around to bite us in the ass. Just how long will it take though?" Sheldon asked.

"An excellent question, but who really knows? Come to think of it, there was an issue with money similar to that on Cluster Prime before I left, but not that severe. Who knows how long it'll take to collapse on itself? That does seem to be the route that it's going in. But it could just manage to sustain itself forever regardless. There's no way to know," Vexus added.

"The real problem is that there's just too many people to investigate and the people will be wondering why I'm doing it. Without any real evidence, I'll look like the bad guy for barging into all those people's lives. I believe I'm right in assuming that's what you were worried about, right X?" Jenny asked while staring directly at him.

"That's exactly what I was worried about, but you didn't say that like you just assumed it. You said it like you knew it for sure," X replied.

"I feel like I did anyway, though I can't even prove it to myself," Jenny confimed.

A couple of seconds later, there was a beeping coming from the main computer.

"I wonder who's at the front door," Ms. Wakeman said while reaching for the button.

As soon as she pressed it, Killgore's face shown on the screen.

"We were wondering where you were, Killgore, believe it or not," XJ5 said.

"XJ4, no, I mean XJ5. Sorry about that. I didn't expect to hear your voice. I am a little surprised you guys were wondering where I was. But then…if that's true, then would I be correct in assuming that you also have an upgrade for me, Ms. Wakeman?" Killgore asked.

Surprised, Ms. Wakeman asked "How in the world did you guess that?"

"Well, that's easy enough to answer. I'll have you know that I know all about Jenny's legal situation, and since I knew about that scientist you guys most likely met and worked with, I figured that was the reason you guys risked leaving your world for as long as you did knowing the seriousness of Suija's presence. I actually thought up all of that in about a couple of seconds after I heard you were going there. There had to be a reasonable purpose, so that was the most logical one I could come up with. Since Jenny was my rival for so long, I did try to find out as much about her as I could. Look at it this way. If I hadn't, would I be standing here right now, or would you guys still be looking for me?" Killgore asked.

Ms. Wakeman laughed a little and then said "We would likely be still looking for you. Sounds like you obsess over my daughter just as much as Sheldon, if not more. Are you sure you don't also have a crush on her?"

"Mom," Jenny yelled embarrassed as the others in the room laughed.

With a slight blush, Killgore said "Ahh…..no…but the thought that someone might say what you just said has crossed my mind once or twice. Focusing on one person for so long would lead people around you to believe that. I don't think much about the possibility of a romantic relationship at all really."

"Well anyway, come on in. I'm opening the door for you now. And by the way, how did you know I was in this room when you asked me about the upgrade since you can't see me?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

As Killgore started making his way through the living room, he answered "I recognize the sound of your breathing patterns. It's a weird habit of mine to catalogue people's biological patterns for a reason I can't describe. It was not in my original programming nor did I plan to start. I really don't remember how it all started. I guess this is what is meant by the term 'second nature."

"I would have to agree with you on that. All my daughters have habits that I never programmed into them that they can't remember how they started. Now that you're at the stairwell, go down two flights, and you'll be where we are. I'm turning the intercom system off now" Ms. Wakeman said.

As soon as Killgore became visible, he said "Oh yes, and before I forget, I found out that of those people Suija killed, there were actually two survivors. These two were nearly dead so that's the way they appeared until much later that day. They're both able to talk, and they both want to talk to someone from our group. They didn't specify. It seems they have something important to tell us."

Jenny's expression became a concerned one and she stood up and said "I'll go. Information aside, I just want to see if they're okay."

"I suppose that's fine. Just try to be back here soon, okay," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Thanks mom. I'll be back as soon as I can," Jenny said as she rushed out of the door.

"Even in the beginning, she's always been deeply concerned about the well-being of others. For me, I programmed her to perform a task, but then I remember feeling proud of her when she would explain to me how she would get this great feeling when she protected people. Now she doesn't seem to be ashamed to express her feelings towards this sort of thing anymore. Did you see how passionate she just was about checking up on them? I wish I could express myself that freely without thinking about what other people are thinking," Ms. Wakeman said smiling.

"I saw it just now, and it was a little surprising. I guess that being pushed over the edge so many times is making her act this way. Oh yeah, and I know what you're trying to say, Killgore. She didn't ask where the hospital was because there's only one hospital in that area," XJ6 said.

"Okay then," Killgore said relieved.


	18. Chapter 18

Jenny made it to the room that the survivors were in. The truth is that there were twenty four survivors. Suija killed many and injured others. It's just that of the people reported to be dead, all of them seemed that way at first. Two of them managed to come back from near death. This room is where nine of the survivors still remained. The others were released from the hospital because their wounds had been patched up by then. The remaining people were in much more serious condition.

When the survivors saw Jenny's face, they could tell she had genuine concern for their plight.

The first person to speak to her was a doctor who ran up to her asking "Since you have much steadier hands than us, can you please help me? I'm trying to remove this tiny piece of bone that we've been trying to remove from the chest of that patient over there. We haven't been able to remove it yet because we're worried we'll cause too much muscle tissue damage."

"I forgot, this hospital isn't equipped for this sort of thing. Sure, I'll do what I can," Jenny said.

She followed the doctor to the patient who was very heavily drugged to keep him from feeling much pain.

Jenny used her targeting scope to zoom in on the tiny bone fragment.

"Whoa! I can see why you guys had a hard time with this. It's so close to his heart," Jenny pointed out.

"The truth is, we actually didn't discover this fragment until two hours ago. We called another hospital, but they said it would be another hour and a half from now before they could arrive with the necessary equipment for this procedure. Since you're here now, I wondered if you thought it was possible to do this yourself. I can walk you through the procedure before you start if you feel you need any advice," The doctor explained.

"Umm…well…I think I can do it without much of a problem, but I will need it to be very quiet in here. I need total concentration," Jenny said as her left hand transformed into a very complex pair of tweezers.

The doctor first cleaned her tool with an alcohol swab, and then he quieted everyone down. As soon as it completely dried, Jenny slowly inched her way into the hole in the man's chest. About ten seconds later, she grabbed hold of the bone. She realized just then that her other hand was necessary. She repeated the cleaning procedure, and then she slowly pushed the muscle tissue out of the way enough to finally remove the bone. She carefully backed away and finally stood straight up when she was in the clear.

After handing the fragment to the doctor, she said "I don't see any problems, so I think it was successful."

Most of the people in the room sighed when they realized that everything seemed to be in order.

"That was the first operation I've done that was this delicate. I'm glad it didn't take very long. I'm even more glad that it was successful. I often complain about having this robot body, but situations like these make me glad I don't have nerves. I probably would've killed him if I was a human," Jenny said.

The man was only able to smile due to his drugged state, but Jenny understood and said "You're welcome, sir."

"He was the only one that needed this kind of help. You don't have to worry about the others. The one missing her leg will need a replacement. That monster Suija made sure of that. Honestly, I don't know how to tell you to go about handling Suija…." The doctor said just as Jenny cut him off by holding up her hand.

"I have to ask that you guys don't talk about this to anyone, but we've all been upgraded yesterday, but if Suija finds out, he might come after us before we feel like we're ready for him. I'm still getting used to fighting at full power, and if I were to fight him now, I don't believe I can win. I probably have the strength to beat him, but not the skill. He pulled off those moves on me so expertly. None of us managed to land a single hit. Hell, we didn't even manage to intimidate him as far as we could tell. Honestly, I'm scared to death. I'm just glad that I have help, but I don't want them to die either," Jenny said in an oddly calm tone.

A woman in her fifties then said "Robot or not, someone young like you shouldn't have to be put in such danger."

Jenny turned to face her, and then said "Yeah, I know, but my mom did many times recently try to convince me to stop because she's more worried about me than she used to be, but I keep saying that I wanna help people. I'm putting myself in these situations. I know if I do stop, things will likely get worse."

She turned again in response to something she saw out of the corner of her eye and then yelled "Now that's just terrible. I wonder how many patients have had heart attacks after seeing ghosts like that one there just appear in front of a window."

When the others saw it, they became a little nervous themselves.

Jenny walked over to the window and yelled in a frustrated tone "Go on. Get out of here. Can't you see these people don't need your looming presence when they're in this condition? Jesus, if you're really on our side, please tell this thing to go away and give these people some peace."

The moment she finished her statement, her hands landed on the window sill. A few seconds later, the ghost faded and disappeared.

Shocked, Jenny said "I've never been able to tell them to go away this easily."

She turned around and said "Maybe he is real. If he is, I owe him a big thank you."

"Well, that…well, it's hard to deny that that one left faster than any of the others I've seen. I threw things at one of them before, and she just stood there grinning at me," The doctor said.

"I'm not planning on starting that argument right now. I need to go ahead and do what I came here to do. So who among you asked me to come here? I wasn't ignoring you when I came in. I just rushed over here when I heard that there were survivors amongst the one's we thought were dead," Jenny explained.

Two people raised their hands. One was a man who had three patches on his stomach area. His damage didn't seem too severe. The other was a woman who was now missing half of her left forearm and has an obviously newly installed cybernetic right shoulder. She raised her right hand, but not very high.

"Are you guys okay, I mean, besides the injuries?" Jenny said with concern in her voice.

Now, normally, both were the type to respond negatively to the wording of Jenny's question. They probably would have said something like "Well, we're obviously not okay. You can plainly see that." It was Jenny's display of concern that let them know she wasn't trying to be funny.

The woman started tearing and then said "You really are much different than you used to be. I mean, you were never hateful, but…I didn't really…I didn't expect you to genuinely care about us like this."

The man then said "Most robots don't show this much emotion towards us when we suffer."

"It's really hard for us to understand what you're going through. I have a better understanding of it than most robots do because I once had some very basic nerve endings installed into me. I only had ticklish and pain. The pain I felt gave me sort of an understanding of how you guys are feeling right now, but I bet what I went through is nothing compared to losing an arm. When I try to imagine…oh, it's just too terrible," Jenny said in a trembling voice.

By the time she was finished, she had her face buried in her hands. The sounds she was making didn't sound exactly like human crying, but they could tell she was.

A few seconds later, the man started saying "Listen to me, Jenny. I need to tell you that if you don't feel like you can win, you should just avoid him. At this point, you seem to be more or less in our boat. He almost killed you just like he killed the others I saw being carried out of this room. I thought some of them might make it, but…they didn't. You barely made it yourself. Very few people have a reason to believe he's planning something big any time soon. If you fell you must face him, train for a while. I know you want to prevent more casualties, but the sad fact is, you might just have to live with the fact that some people are going to die while you train or whatever it is you plan on doing."

Jenny balled up her fists, growled, slowly pulled her hands away from her face, and then yelled "That is…unacceptable. I know you're right…but how can I let that happen to people? Just seeing you guys in this condition now is making me furious. I hate him so much for what he did to you all. I'm supposed to be the hero. I'm supposed to put myself in the line of fire. This is a situation that definitely calls for it, but what am I if I'm not able to do what I was made to do?"

Another man said "I'll tell you this Jenny. As far as most anybody can tell, you're just as alive as any of us. Now I can't prove that, but please listen. If it is true that you really are alive like us, then do you believe that your only reason for living is fighting? You are a robot, but shit, you are so young. You've been in worse situations than most hardened adult soldiers in like the past fifty years have been in. I'm tellin' you, it aint right. We got some pretty high definition cameras nowadays, and though you were far away from the camera man, I could see your horrified face when you were in pieces on the ground. Human bodies can't take that kind of trauma more than once even if they survive. How many more times are you gonna end up in that state as you continue this craziness for years and years? I tell ya your sister, XJ5, no I mean, XJ6, that's her name. I tell ya that she wouldn't have been screamin' like that for no reason. She knew you were in bad shape. I'm just sayin' that you need to think about your life. You need to consider your future. Let's say you do manage to survive every time. So what? Is this whole superhero thing the only thing you have goin' for ya? I mean, why can't your mother just build another robot that can't think and feel like you can to take yer place?"

Jenny finally lowered her arms and replied "That's because robots like that can't develop fighting experience. Their ability to predict their opponent's next move is extremely limited. They can't adapt very much. They can't reinvent themselves as they go along. Once they are figured out, they lose, end of story. The kind of technology needed to have that capability without the ability to think for itself and feel, but is able to adapt to that high a degree, is probably hundreds of years away from now. That's what my mom explained to me when I asked her about it. The more I thought about it, the more true I realized it to be. Either way you look at it, the fucked up thing about it all is that I happen to be one of the strongest players in this stupid game. But the truly fucked up thing is not who has to be the one to go up against the bad guy; it's the bad guy himself. He's the one that's wrong for entering the equation…because he's the bad guy. If it weren't for elements like him, I wouldn't have to worry about being almost nine years old fighting in life or death battles. And if I don't do it, who will? Yeah, there are the others, but our group doesn't count up to a lot of people to make the scenario seem much less unfortunate. Without us, you'd be counting on like less than one percent of the world's population to fight your battles for you. That would be the police and military. That's still not a good thing. If they are all also defeated, then you guys would be forced to fight…and it just so happens that you keep your children very close by. I'm not telling you to send your children out to fight, but if the situation gets bad enough, they'd better find the nearest gun or just run as fast as they can. It's ugly no matter what way you look at it. That young man sitting over there doesn't look shocked that I said that at all. Did you fight in the war with the robots a couple of years ago, kid?"

The boy answered saying "Yeah…I did. Didn't manage to do much good though."

"At least you tried. I commend you for that, but I'd rather it not ever come to that. That guy just said I was young, but the crazy shit I've been through in my life…man, sometimes I feel like I've lived an entire lifetime. Hmm…I still feel young…I guess. It's all very complicated," Jenny explained.

The man with the stomach patches then said "I wanted to tell you this in person because I wanted you to hear it on a personal level. Plus, I always did want a chance to actually meet you face to face. That restaurant incident wasn't exactly ideal for our first meeting. I actually had a much longer version of it in my head, but I shortened it by calling you in here. Well, whatever, I told you what I needed to tell you. So, you ready to tell her what you wanted to say, ma'am?"

The woman then said "I think I'm ready now. You're probably going to look at me strange when I say this, but I actually have some information that may help you."

"What?" Jenny asked surprised.

"I had a feeling you'd all look at me that way. I'm not even sure about this myself, but I suggest trying to find a woman named Yima Makaharu. It's just that, hmm…it's really hard to say, but I feel like I remember something my grandmother telling me years ago about demons. Of course I didn't think it was serious or realistic or worth concerning myself with at the time. I remember her mentioning this Yima lady's name. She said she was one of the last remaining people who had a good understanding of ancient Japanese culture and folklore. The problem is, I need to tell you that she's probably not alive anymore, just as my grandmother also no longer is. If she is, she's likely very old. If she is dead, you will need to try to dig up anything you can on her and what she knew. This sounds like some crazy movie, don't it? I just remembered all this stuff after I felt that pain Suija inflicted on me. It sounds like a waste of time or a wild goose chase, but it's all I have. If I had your power, I'd be flying to Japan right now instead of recovering in a hospital. I just can't wait till they get here with that robot hand. It's better than having no hand at all," The woman explained.

Jenny grinned and started laughing, and a moment later, she finally said "My whole life seems like some kind of crazy movie. But everybody's got so many problems you could make a sitcom or something out of each of our lives. I'm gonna take your advice, and honestly, it's because I'm kinda desperate. If a story book my friend Tuck read to me a couple of years ago was talking about an ancient Japanese fire demon, and he turned out to be real, then why would your story seem any less credible? So where in Japan should I look exactly?"

"I don't know the city name, but know it's in the Northwestern most region of Japan. If you ask around enough, somebody will likely recall that name or somebody from that family," The woman explained.

"Thank you very much for the info. But before I go…"Jenny said as she made her way over to a man in his seventies who was crying from the pain he was feeling in his leg."

He was sitting up in his bed, and she knelt down next to him and said in a trembling voice "I know this isn't exactly helpful, but sometimes I actually wish I could feel what you're going through. I remember back when my mom took those pain nerves away from me, I was surprised that I actually missed having them. Sometimes I cry myself to sleep saying that I'd be willing to go through what you're going through right now just so I can feel something. This body of mine makes me go crazy sometimes. Right now, if it would heal you, I would take your pain for a week just so I can feel human for a little while. Can you please tell me how I can possibly be crazy enough to envy your pain? Am I insane or something?"

The man looked at her and said "Probably…probably not. But no, I don't want you to feel this. No way. I don't want anybody to feel this. If you feel anything one day, I want you to feel something better than what we go through. It's kind of you to want to take this pain away from me right now, and I thank you for saying that."

He looked down at the large stitched together gash in his leg, then back up at her to see that she was hugging herself very tight looking like she was ready to cry. A few seconds later, he leaned over and hugged her tight and let her cry until she was ready to stop.


	19. Chapter 19

Meanwhile, Suija was walking around inside of an old church. This church was way off the map in the middle of the woods. He eventually made his way down to the lowest basement.

He took a deep breath, and then yelled "I know you're here. Stop acting like you left this place."

A strange looking seven foot tall male form stood up from a dark shadow.

The form spoke saying "You know it's not wise for you to be here…"

Suija raised his hand suddenly signaling him to halt in irritation, and then said "I don't have anything to fear from them. I just want to know…did you ever manage to find that thing?"

"I still don't understand why you want it. It won't do you any good. But if you must know, we feel as though it is deep underground somewhere in one of those desert states. We sense strange energies from many different areas of this world all the time, but that one gives us very unusual vibes. Then there are old military reports that seem to indicate an item of misunderstood origin. It seems as though those men thought it was dangerous, so they hid it so deep underground that most of us can't even find it. We think that just might be the place. With your form, you may just be able to pull it off, but I still don't understand why you think you'll be able to use it when no one else can," The shadow replied.

"I would like to try. I will never know unless I attempt it. You ought to admit it would be worth it if it did, wouldn't you say?" Suija asked.

"I suppose, but the last time it worked, there were complications," The shadow answered.

"And so…I have heard. I will remember to keep that in mind if it ever comes to that. By the way, you might want to consider leaving this place before you start burning," Suija said with a grin.

The shadow laughed and said "Is some of that new aged humor being instilled into you? We both know this building was never a church of God. Enough sin has been committed in this place to make it a rather peaceful dwelling spot for us."

"Peaceful but boring. Nevertheless, I need to go. That fool is probably still running around wildly turning every stone looking for me. I just get sick of having to deal with him," Suija said.

"I did want to know about that. What is his fascination with you anyway?" The shadow asked.

"Enja is difficult to understand, even for me. I sort of know why he chases me, and I do know that I am the one who got myself into this situation, but even with that, I don't fully understand his motives. If he would answer my questions for once instead of always coming at me with the screaming and the declarations of death and bloody murder, maybe I could at least know why for sure. Regardless…I need to go now," Suija said just before slowly forming into a puddle of water and then leaving up through the stairs.

The shadowy figure then knelt back down into the corner he was in before Suija came.

* * *

For quite a while now, Vexus had wanted the chance to go on a mission with Jenny: just the two of them. Now was her chance. It was a little weird though because classifying it as a mission was difficult in a way. Calling it a mission would usually suggest that they already know what they are looking for or what they're trying to accomplish or what they're trying to obtain. They had the feeling that this was more of a wild goose chase than a mission, but Vexus is getting what she wanted nevertheless.

They were, at the moment, at an altitude of about fifty thousand feet, flying over the Pacific Ocean. It was also around five o'clock in the morning.

"Don't you have a GPS installed, Jenny?" Vexus asked.

"You're wondering why we're flying so high, right? Well, I want to find it with my eyes. I know we're going in the right direction, but I want to have sort of a feeling of surprise when the Japan islands come into view. I kinda want that feeling a sailor who sits up in the crows nest gets when he says 'land ho' all surprised like," Jenny explained.

"Well, I guess doing it that way ought to be pretty interesting. Flying this high will give us a more than adequate aerial view as well," Vexus said.

"I feel surprisingly good right now. I could feel better, but at least I'm not as down as I was yesterday. I also feel a whole lot better knowing that we can spend some time together," Jenny said smiling.

Vexus smiled back and said "Looks like we can finally have that talk you spoke of that day when that pirate was here."

Surprised, Jenny raised her right hand pointing her index finger at Vexus, and then said "You are right about that. I did say that. Seems like you were also looking forward to it."

"At the time, I wanted most anybody to talk to, but I still held onto that old public personality of mine. I was quite miserable to say the least. All my life I never had to be alone for so long until then. I had gotten so used to always having company. I swear, I think I was going mad," Vexus explained.

"I'm just glad you actually have friends now. I'm also glad you have a guy in your life too," Jenny added.

"Thank you. I have to ask you this, Jenny. Do you still harbor any resentment towards me?" Vexus asked with slight worry in her voice.

"The new you is great. I have nothing against you. The old you was the problem. I've learned to let that stuff go. So much has happened since you were a threat to us that I hardly ever think about the bad blood we used to have anymore," Jenny said while still smiling.

After examining Jenny's response and demeanor for a couple of seconds, Vexus finally said "That's a much bigger relief than you know. The thought that you might still be angry with me has been eating away at me for a while now. I wish the rest of your people could see things the way you do."

"People can really only deal with what's around them. If they don't have a lot of crazy things to deal with like I do, they will likely continue doing things the way they've been doing them. Political correctness aside, I have much bigger things to worry about than petty rivalries and grudges. I'm cautious when dealing with Jason, but I'm not angry with him anymore. He doesn't seem to be angry with me, so that's good. Angel is just a weird case altogether. I'm not sure what to say about her. Grace still has attitude problems with me, and I wish she would get over whatever it is that's still bugging her. Confronting her is kinda scary for reasons hard to describe, but I know I should if I hope to squash this issue," Jenny explained.

"Believe me, I know what you mean. I talked to her a couple of times before, and she has a way of pushing certain buttons that most people can't. Grace is intimidating," Vexus confirmed.

"Yeah, and I bet she won't let the fact that you were once a villain go, will she?" Jenny asked.

Vexus shook her head indicating that Jenny guessed correctly.

Jenny placed her left hand on Vexus's right shoulder and said "Look, Vexus. I've known her much longer than you have. She is a difficult case to deal with no matter which way you approach her. I know she knows you're sincere about becoming a better person, but she still feels a lot of pain deep down that doesn't go away easily, and she…she just has a very difficult time dealing with it. You shouldn't let her get to you. Yeah…yes, I know she has an uncanny ability to stir your emotions. I know it quite well. You don't have to tell me about it."

"Okay, but it's not only her. It's also me. I wish I had never done those terrible things. My past is filled with so much evil and darkness. I feel such a strong sense of being out of place nowadays. I've only been one of the good guys for nearly two years now, technically a little longer. Even so, this life I'm living now…I often feel like I'm in a temporary dream that's going to end soon and that I'm just going to wake up in my palace like this never happened. Over a thousand years versus two. It almost fails to make any sense. Don't misunderstand me. I want to be one of the good guys. I just…try to imagine what I'm feeling. Old dogs can't learn new tricks they say. I am a very old dog. Learning this new trick sort of makes me feel like I'm doing something that should normally be impossible, but I'm doing it. Vexus plus good guy equals 'what the fuck?" Vexus explained.

"And that's what a whole lot of people are feeling right now. They don't really know how to take it. I remember thinking I would have a hard time accepting you, but my life was so crazy at the time that when it seemed like you were trying, the whole time I was so hopeful that you would come around that I wondered if I was just being desperate and naïve: desperate for better times and for a new friend in my life, and naïve to think something so crazy could really happen. But I understand my mom's position, she had to live with the harsh effects of your actions much longer than I had to, so it's no wonder it took her so long to accept you. It was the same for my sisters. It didn't take them very long to accept you either. Mom was fighting with it for months. Grace probably dwells on negativity much more intensely than most people do. One of the strangest people to try to figure out is Melody. What a case she is. She's so hard to read. When it comes to you, she doesn't seem to have much of an opinion at all. Her position has strongly affected her though. She has a place with Brad, which is good, but she was brought up in a household with a man who never really cared for her much. What's worse is that her father was an outcast which made her an even bigger outcast. She has such a detached position in this world: very little connection to it at all. The only friends she has are ones who can die at any time like her father. It's because we are heroes, and Brad is associated with us which unfortunately makes him a potential target. I remember her saying that at first, she didn't think much of her father's death, but in time, the reality of it really cut her deep. I had to console her on more than one occasion when she told me that she often wonders if her existence is a curse on people around her and that it's only a matter of time before her involvement with us ends up in tragedy. She's probably just crying on the inside because of how she feels like the oddball in our equation: that if she left it, would she even be missed. I tried telling her to let people around her get closer to her so she won't feel that way, but it's hard to convince her that it's a worthwhile attempt. I figured that if you could do it, why not her? I'll try again with her soon. Grace also has a similar position, but if only her intimidation factor wasn't so strong, I wouldn't feel so reluctant to try to reach her. You are different though. I know nothing about living a life of villainy. I've always seen it from the viewpoint of one of the good guys. I don't know how to tell you to go about overcoming such a strong feeling of guilt. I also know that it's hard not to think about it when people who know you for the evil queen you once were look at you funny when you come around. Your situation is much older than mine, so I can't give you much more advice than to simply keep doing what you are doing now and give it time. And…" Jenny explained before trailing off.

"What is it," Vexus asked.

A moment later, Jenny finally said "How do I go about telling a robot like us to repent for their sins? That's the reason for the silent treatment just then. I know it's a whole lot dropped on you suddenly, but do you see the dilemma?" Jenny asked.

A moment later, Vexus asked "So, you're taking this seriously then?"

"I don't know what to do…honestly. Speaking of positions, I don't know of another robot besides myself anywhere that thinks this deeply about the God issue. Umm…if you don't even know if you have a spirit inside you, then how do you know if you need to repent? How do you know if your actions were ever even counted as sin at all for repenting to even matter? This drives me crazy sometimes, you know?" Jenny replied in a surprisingly calm tone.

A moment of silence passed, and then Jenny continued saying "I can't try to claim that if our existences can't be explained then maybe the humans got it wrong when they explained themselves. And what about all of the alien…fleshly…people? Are humans the only ones with souls? If we have souls, then what? If it is true that God really gave us souls or spirits or whatever they're supposed to be called, then of course I thank him for that, but how am I suppose to know if it's something I need to worry about? That book says that all living things should praise God's holy name, but what if I'm not actually living?"

"I can say this for starters. Whenever you take something this seriously, I mean…since you've matured, that people around you usually realize that they're better off taking you seriously. It took me a while to figure out what you've been doing. You've developed a sort of…field around your body…that allows you to be able to observe a large number of things all at once instead of relying on handling only one thing at a time as most other beings are usually limited to. You're doing this in hopes of figuring out the who, what, when, where, and why of everything from multiple points of view besides where you happen to be stationed. You also hope that you will be able to see if any of this will lead you to finding God himself. Jennifer…that, in my opinion, is more than clever. It also took me a while to word this correctly. Most people don't even attempt to think along this track. I can't even remotely guarantee that you'll be successful, but you really have turned into something special. You are not the Jenny I once knew. You are…but you aren't at the same time. There was nothing…and I mean absolutely nothing that would lead me to believe you would become…this back then. I know I'm right in my claim about your activities. So then, what have you managed to piece together so far?" Vexus asked.

"Umm…most of the stuff I've been talking about lately makes up most of it, but…there are things…this is complicated. Imagine running up to somebody panicking like crazy explaining to them that you saw something that scared you shitless. The person then asks you to describe it, but you can't. But I don't know how to describe it. It is truly not of this world. There's no way to describe it based on anything you know of. I can't possibly help you to visualize it. I might just slowly be losing my grip on reality, but man…some of the things I'm seeing, not things that necessarily have a form, but just things like concepts, new ways of looking at reality…it's too crazy for me to try to explain in a sensible way. Imagine for a moment living in a house all your life never seeing the outside or even knowing anything existed out there, but then one day you make it outside and you can't even tell how this new world you're seeing is even capable of supporting yours and the house's existence. And then…you look out away from the direction of the house…and the awe…and the confusion…and the fear you would experience. I feel…man I don't even know how to describe that feeling exactly. My reaction is strong, but this makes up for the minority of what I've pieced together because I just can't wrap my mind around it. It's like trying to translate the staticy…snowy shit you see on those antique TVs into a readable language. As of now, it seems impossible. I'm becoming convinced that you would indeed need a God-like consciousness and understanding to make sense of it," Jenny explained.

"In other words, it's not too much different from what we understand or have guessed, but you're confident you've managed to get an actual glimpse of it," Vexus guessed.

"Well…yeah. That's what I think anyway. It's so bizarre that I wonder if I'm just going insane," Jenny explained.

"You haven't been around long enough to have experienced this, but…every let's say…uh…couple hundred years or so, I start looking at myself like something is wrong with how long I've been alive. I remember a number of occasions where I would be staring at myself in a mirror for hours at a time feeling like I was going mad. You know how sometimes the years seem to pass very quickly, well, that's not the case for me anymore. Two thousand years is so very long. I don't know where I'm going with this but to say that…if you are going crazy, I certainly won't be the one to judge you. But if you really want me to provide you with my honest opinion; I can't say I rightly know. I don't really feel like you're going crazy. In fact, I barely feel any suspicion that you're headed that way. I think that you are seeing something real, but I don't know how much of it is real or not," Vexus said.

"Thanks for being honest, and…now that you told me about your issue with your lifespan, I imagine those couple of years you spent alone were much longer and more agonizing than I thought," Jenny guessed.

A few seconds later, Vexus answered quietly "Yes."

Jenny flew right next to her and hugged for a few moments, and when she let go, she said "I really wish it never had to come to that, but…I don't know. It's best we try to just put it behind us and make the best out of the way life seems to be heading. All things considered, life seems to be going pretty good nowadays. Even if we do die at the hands of those demons, at least we'll leave this world as friends instead of enemies. I like the sound of that much better, don't you?" Jenny asked.

"I agree totally, but I'm not looking forward to dying," Vexus replied.

"I almost killed myself once, and you already know that, but…I believe one of the reasons I've survived so long is because I've learned to see the reality of death for what it is ever since. I could go at any time. That young peoples' perception of being too young to die was sucked right out of me that day, and it never came back. Wouldn't it be really tragic if I was carrying a baby right now, got distracted, and then dropped the baby, and it died? That's how I see things now. This world is so fragile just like Axl said. I didn't take Sigma lightly for a second when I fought him. If I had, I'm quite sure I wouldn't be here right now. I'm pretty sure that's how you see things. Your age alone must've taught you that. I can say this about Suija. I kinda-sorta know what to expect from him. He's the type who you can't afford to attack unless you really feel like you find a wide opening. I won't even so much as throw a punch unless I find that opening. I now realize that every action in a fight against a guy like him means life or death. He won't let it play out like some kind of comic book to put on a show for the audience. He'll kill you as quickly and uneventfully as possible, meaning that he's a true murderer, and if you want to win, you'll have to fight like a murderer as well. To say it sucks is an understatement for sure. I hate that kind of fight, but life is too precious and fragile to risk it by fighting like a hero in situations like this" Jenny explained.

A moment later, Vexus said "I know these things, but sometimes I seem to forget them somewhat. For you, it's like an egg you're sitting on that you know will never hatch, but you never falter. You know it's your duty to sit on that egg, so you do it. You chose to constantly focus on the reality of death and do everything in your power not to forget it…because death…isn't going anywhere. It's up to us to do everything we can to avoid it. I'll take your words to heart. Oh, and you must've been so traumatized by your suicide attempt. Come here," Vexus said as she pulled Jenny close and hugged her.

Jenny was surprised that Vexus was offering this kind of support, but that's because she didn't expect it, not because she didn't think she was sincere. Even so, Jenny gave in and hugged her back. A moment later, they finally let go of each other.

With a surprised smile, Vexus asked "Where did that come from? I haven't hugged anyone like that since…Vega. It was such a long time ago too. I do hope to one day be able to reunite with her. Don't worry, I'm not torn up about that right now, I'm just surprised at my gesture more than anything. It felt pretty good though."

Hugging herself slightly, Jenny stared at Vexus and started laughing in an odd kind of excited but restricted way.

Vexus put her hand on her forehead with an expression of "duh" without actually saying it.

"So the reformed evil queen Vexus starts acting all motherly. What a surprise?" Vexus said followed by a laugh of her own.

"Well, I'm not used to seeing this side of you at all. Oh, but speaking of Melody, I'd be probably ten times more surprised to see her do what you just did; Grace too," Jenny pointed out.

"Why is that?" Vexus asked.

"This ain't about the fact you used to be a villain. They have much more restricted personalities than you do. You can express yourself more easily. But you're okay, Vexus. I'm glad that you did that for me," Jenny said with a smile.

Still wearing the same smile, Vexus said "And I'll do it again if you want me to."

"You really enjoyed that, didn't you?" Jenny asked.

Vexus nodded her head indicating a yes.

"Well, too bad we don't have more time to talk for now. We're already here. Japan is right there," Jenny said pointing at it.

"It's a good thing we don't have to do all that checking in since they already know we're coming," Vexus added.

"Just one the perks of being a well known superhero. Unless I do something stupid, I can move about pretty freely most of the time, but I do have to let their government know I'm coming first. I'm sure you also guessed by now that they can see us right now as we speak from the ground, and from satellite," Jenny pointed out.

"Of course. I used to do the same when anyone got anywhere close to our planet or our capital city for that mater," Vexus said.

* * *

Of course they were being monitored. That's just the way things are in the real world. In actuality, there are three satellites dedicated to monitoring any and all things going on within three miles of the Wakeman residence. Hero or not, Jenny is still very powerful, and powerful people aren't ever trusted enough to move around with absolute freedom and secrecy by the public. Also, this only applies to those who are generally well known, as Jenny happens to be. There are those who are in a way much more powerful than Jenny, just not physically, but since they aren't known by the general public, they aren't monitored. Why is this? There are many reasons, but to make this claim go beyond just being a claim, you would need proof.

So then, how do they get away with it? That information has already been stated. They aren't well known. In the eyes and minds of the general public, these people don't officially exist. These are people that the average Joe on the street will never meet, and even if they do, they won't recognize them for who they are when they see them. These are a people who are deliberately ignored when the census is conducted every so often. These are a people who know how to pull strings unlike anybody else. In fact, come to think of it, Silver Fox would most likely never have been known to Jenny and her friends were it not for Sigma's presence. As powerful as he is, how could they not have been aware of his existence? Interesting, isn't it?

Now, Silver Fox isn't a manipulative person, it's his superiors that kept him a secret, so he's an exception. Here's the question though; who are his superiors? Interesting question, right? If someone asked him, what would they likely expect him to say?

Silver Fox: "I'm not at liberty to answer that question."

That seems to be the most likely response…or something along those lines. If your children were in the custody of the Department of Social Services or in a foster home for those needing a simplified version, and you asked the case worker who is the person who their boss is, what would they likely say?

Case Worker: "I'm not at liberty to answer that question."

That's just a couple of examples that can be given, but the thing is…who are these people that have this unfair veil of secrecy and protection granted to them that the average man or woman does not have?

* * *

So there was a military base right on the coast of Japan. The people who worked there did their job as usual. They notified whoever they're supposed to notify in the Japanese government that both Jenny and Vexus arrived as they said they would.

In that same small office, there were six people sitting in there having a discussion about an issue with one of their cargo ships before Jenny and Vexus showed up. They all saw them pass overhead.

One man decided to comment "If I could get away with it, I would shoot that alien right out of the sky."

The technician sitting behind the computer then said "You're not the forgiving type, as usual."

The first man then said "So a guy robs a corner store and kills three people, and he gets no mercy from the judge. Capital punishment is all the judge and jury can see in their eyes. She kills millions and gets away with it. Well, she only got away with a few hundred thousand here, but elsewhere, her murderous rampages are legendary. I bet you many other alien races out there are planning on contacting us soon wondering why we're being so lenient on her. What are we going to tell them, the truth? How are they going to see us when they realize the only reason we keep her alive is because we think she's useful. It wouldn't matter how politically correct we word the official statement, they'll quickly realize the truth and will have the perfect excuse to continue calling us the self-serving bastards they've known us to be for so long. It may be true, but we should take steps to at least make it look like we're taking their feelings into genuine consideration."

"You know just as well as I that it's never as simple as just gunning somebody down because you're angry. I feel the same as you on the subject, but most of the people here on Earth are going to mostly focus on her recent good behavior and contributions to the betterment of humanity. That argument will most certainly win the debates no matter what angle you approach them from," a woman explained.

"She makes a good point," another man added.

The first man then said "Well, it's not doing any of us any good to continue throwing the obvious at each other. I just felt the need to vent for a moment."

The woman then counted in her head "_Four…three…two…one_."

The first man then raised his voice suddenly saying "And that XJ9 of all people; what the hell is she thinking? Why would she choose to befriend that woman?"

The technician then answered "I wish I knew for sure, but I've never met Jennifer before, so…"

"The woman then said "There are only a few reasonable possibilities that most anyone can think of, but I think she did it because she was sad and didn't have many friends at the time anyway. In other words, I think she was desperate."

The technician then added "I was thinking basically the same thing…you know…as a likely possibility."

The first man then said "That figures. I actually happen to think she normally has good judgment, with the exception of a few fuck ups in the past when she was still learning real life. I just hope this isn't another fuck up on Jenny's part."


	20. Chapter 20

When the pair finally landed in a somewhat crowded narrow street in a town, they decided the best thing would be to ask around instead of focusing on seeing the sights. The people who were now stopped in their tracks staring at the pair were waiting to see what they would do.

Jenny then asked them in Japanese "Has anyone here heard of a woman named Yima Makaharu? This woman, if still alive, is probably very old right now. I was told that I need to find and have a word with her."

Of course, Vexus only understood a few words in Japanese, and she only recognized the "ka" at the end of the first sentence that told her that Jenny was asking a question. The people were hesitant to either say anything or approach because Vexus was standing there with Jenny. In fact, they were afraid to move much at all.

Jenny caught onto this very quickly, and then said "Vexus will not harm any of you. You have nothing to worry about. I would not bring her here if I thought she was a problem."

Vexus folded her arms and sighed. She then turned and lowered her head, and then closed her eyes. As soon as she heard her name in the middle of a Japanese sentence, she already knew what the issue was.

They all could see the seriousness in Jenny's face, so they knew she wasn't lying, but that only told them that she was telling them how she understood the situation.

One young man that appeared to be about twenty two years old spoke up saying "A lot of people here know of her, but we don't know where to find her or if she is still alive. All we know for sure is that you need to travel about ten miles west of here to the forest. If any of her family still lives out there, they will probably tell you to leave, and not because you brought Vexus with you. They used to fire warning shots at people, so we stopped dealing with them."

"Why would they want to keep everybody out?" Jenny asked.

A woman who appeared to be in her sixties answered "A long time ago, the city governments around here sent many of us into those woods to tear down a wall that family built, but we thought it was a wall our government built and that they just needed extra help. I was one of the workers, and only ten years old too. They came out of the woods shooting at us, and we didn't understand why. I guess they figured we knew it was their wall. We were just hired workers. Many others tried to ask why they were shooting at us, but they would not listen to us. They killed several people over a course of about two months. We stopped trying after a while. That boy told you the truth. We don't know exactly where they live. We were working for several hours before they started shooting so we figured they could be living miles away from there."

Jenny then bowed and said "Thank you very much for telling me this. I should've told you why I asked you about her first. We were told that it may be possible that Ms. Makaharu knows something about how to deal with the demon Suija, and maybe Enja too. You all do know what has been happening recently, don't you?"

The woman then replied "Yes, we know about how you fought with Suija. I don't know who you heard this from, but we don't know anything about whether or not they would know how to defeat demons. I understand you though. You need anything you can get your hands on. That's why you are here. As far as we know, that family is very old-fashioned, and if anyone would know anything about ancient things like that, they probably would. I need to tell you one other thing before you go, Suija, as legend tells it, used to devour bad children who would not take their parent's advice when they were told not to go to get water from wells by themselves. That was the story we were told when we were kids. It honestly terrified me. When I became an adult, I naturally came to realize the story was just another boogey man story. Now he's real. We've actually seen him on television. I thought about what our parents used to tell us about him eating children, and you know what, it might be true. They way he almost killed you, how he didn't seem to give it a second thought, if he ate a child in front of me, I would not be surprised. We've also heard of this Enja that follows him around, but we only know of his name. We have no details on him. I just want to make sure you know that you will not be able to reason with them. We don't know of any such person to ever be able to reason with a demon. If I were you, I would not waste my time trying to talk to them."

Jenny bowed once again saying "Thank you once again. I kind of figured reasoning with them would not be possible, but hearing it from you helps me feel better about my guess. I wish I had more time to talk, but we really must be off. Good-bye, everyone."

As soon as Jenny raised her head, she signaled to Vexus that it was time to go, and then they left.

The woman then said "At least Vexus can be reasoned with. I didn't used to think so."

Another man then said "That is actually a good point. At least she can be reasoned with. It's strange though, I always thought of her as some scary monster, but when I saw how ashamed she seemed to be, I didn't see a monster standing in front of me."

The woman then said "Look at this way. If we had to fight against her and the demons at the same time, we'd be in a much worse situation."

The same man then said "Another good point."

* * *

As they were flying towards the place they were headed to, Jenny went ahead and told Vexus everything that happened. By the time Jenny finished, they had already landed and had been walking for about twenty seconds.

"I know that for a lot of them, it's not hatred towards me they still feel. They just can't seem to stop fearing me. I know I can't expect them to just accept me with open arms after what I've done. I wish I had never taken it that far in the first place. But then if I never had, you probably wouldn't have been made. You were made for defending this planet mostly against me. I want the win-win scenario, but there isn't one," Vexus said just before kicking a large rock into a pond about ninety feet away.

Jenny actually didn't have anything to add to that last statement.

"Forget all this negative talk for now. We need to hurry and find this woman. Don't you have some sort of sonar detection installed?" Vexus asked.

"You mean to tell me you don't?" Jenny asked with a disbelieving expression on her face.

"I do, but I never had much practice with it. I haven't even activated it in over four hundred years. I've been relying on either my minions or this orb to detect nearby machinery. Then there is that one thing. It's weird, but the last time I used it…it's the strangest thing. I scared myself because I thought I picked up on something that looked monstrous. When I switched back to my normal sight, I couldn't see the thing I thought I saw anywhere. I figured it probably had something to do with the crazy winds that were encircling that planet that day. But what the heck? I ought to give it a try," Vexus said just before the green light coming from her eyes shifted to a purple color.

After looking around for a moment, Vexus said "Well, there's no monsters this time. That's good. Wherever they are; they're not within five miles from here. Beyond that, everything is starting to look blurry. I should've asked your mother to upgrade this as well."

As soon as Vexus's sight returned to normal mode, Jenny asked "I'm also assuming you haven't detected any machinery close by either?"

"I could detect one of those cheap hand-held electric fans a hundred miles from here. I have yet to detect anything coming from that direction using my orb besides the fact that this thing tells me of a possible large city about two hundred miles from here in that direction. I can't sense anything specific in that forest in front of us at all. These people must live very low-tech lifestyles. Maybe they use low powered flashlights or lamps. I won't pick up on something like that unless I'm close by. I guess it's your turn," Vexus replied.

"As much as I would like to go on adventure and search around blindly, that'll take too long. I did have that thought in mind before we came here. Okay, let's see here. This might take a few…I found a few small houses, but no definite sign of people yet. Let us say for instance that they happen to be taking an afternoon nap and they're not snoring. The sound from the wind will be more that enough to drown out their normal breathing. That could be the case, but since I do not see any more houses in this forest, I'll assume that should be the place to look for now," Jenny said.

So they started running very quickly, but quietly as possible, because they didn't want to startle anyone who may be living there. Landing in their yard from the sky seemed a little too imposing for someone living in the middle of the woods.

When they finally arrived, they saw a small group of houses with fences around the yards. These people, if still alive, were definitely old-fashioned: like nineteenth century old-fashioned.

"After looking at this place…you know, I actually doubt they even have electric lights at all: not even battery powered," Vexus said while looking around at everything like she was suddenly transported into an old western movie.

"We should be a little cautious though. If you remember, these people had guns back then, and if they are still alive, they probably still have them," Jenny warned.

"I see your point. For all we know, they probably have obtained much more powerful guns since…and they could even have this place booby-trapped," Vexus added.

They both froze suddenly when they heard a young woman's voice behind them in the direction of the houses saying in English "I do keep guns, like the one I'm pointing at you now. Booby-traps are something I removed a long time ago."

A moment of silence passed before she added "You can turn around to face me if you want to. Don't do anything sudden, or I will shoot you without hesitation."

They both turned around slowly and they looked at her with the most bewildered expressions. The woman looked pretty ordinary. She wore a dress and she puffed a home-made cigar. Those things couldn't have been the reason they looked at her so strangely for. It was something else entirely.

"Do you detect…" Jenny asked?

Vexus then replied "No, I don't. She's not even sitting there in front of us. I see her, but…my sensors don't. Is that the same with you, Jennifer?"

"Oh yeah. Something tells me she's not a ghost either," Jenny guessed.

The woman coughed once, and then replied "Well…you guessed it right, all right. I'm just as human as all the others around here pointing their guns at you right now."

Remembering what the woman said about sudden movements, Jenny slowly looked around for a moment to see how many people she could spot.

When she finally returned her gaze to the woman, she said "As far as I can tell, there are eleven of you."

The woman puffed her cigar again, and then replied saying "Almost. There are fourteen of us. I know you want an explanation…so…uh…to put it in terms that you ought to be able to understand; we all know how to hide our life force so your equipment can't find us. It's like a mask…or a camouflage. Your equipment thinks it's looking at air or the empty space that would be here if I wasn't crouched right here as I am now. Now…before you even start telling us your story…we know of the spirits running about…and that told us that sooner or later, someone was going to come here. To tell you the truth, we didn't expect it to be you, robot girl. We didn't expect the former queen either. We were convinced that you people were the type to be so caught up in this new age to consider coming to us. How exactly did you know about this place anyway?"

"I only knew what a woman at a hospital told me. She just came out of nowhere with a story about her grandmother knowing about this woman named Yima Makaharu. I asked the towns people near here to guide me, and now we're here," Jenny explained.

After two more puffs of her cigar, she finally put it out, and then said "Yima died a long time ago. I removed those booby-traps a long time ago. She was killed by one of them…so I removed them."

"That's very unfortunate. I am sorry for your loss," Jenny said and then bowed her head.

"Well now…your first reaction was to try to console us instead of worry about whether or not we would still be able to offer our assistance. Thank you for that by the way. Onto another matter; we don't have television…which means to say that we rarely know much about what happens outside of these woods. I'm hoping…for your sake…that some major changes have been made regarding her. It seems that way…and that's because you don't seem worried…and I would much rather hear it from your mouth first," The woman said in a demanding way.

Jenny returned her gaze to the woman, and then said "To know where to start, I need to know when the last news report from world events you've had was."

"Anything Sigma related…about a year ago. We know about this portal to another fucking world that's still wide open. We know you beat his ass with the help of others. That's about all we know about it. Oh yeah, sorry about how he humiliated you and your friend Misty that night. Beyond that, we know mostly nothing," The woman replied.

"Thank you for that. Embarrassing was a very small way to describe that event. Did you know Vexus here helped us beat Sigma?" Jenny asked.

With the sound of a number of the people surrounding them gasping and commenting about the news, Jenny couldn't help but smile at their surprise. She also knew the look the woman had on her face was that of surprise and that she was studying Jenny's expression.

"A law regarding making robots here on Earth says that no one is allowed to make a robot that can think for itself with the ability to completely deviate from having natural reactions. An example for this would be if I was shooting a pet of yours you cared about, you would show distress on your face, meaning that you would react as humans would. This tells me that, you know…based on your expression now…some changes have been made," The woman said.

"When Sigma showed up, Vexus had been alone for so long that she had become more depressed than any of us could ever imagine. I remember paying her a visit to respond to her request for my mom to upgrade her because she was afraid we might lose the war against the Mavericks. I was just as skeptical as mostly anybody would be, but then I talked to her, and man, I never thought I'd see her in the condition she was in. She was crying and everything. She actually turned herself in after I talked to her. She was in tears talking about how she was deeply regretting everything she did to us. She kept saying she wanted to try to repair as much of the damage as she could if she was given the chance. The world governments gave her that chance. She helped us fight Sigma as long as she could. Since then, she's been doing a lot to help people everywhere. She rebuilt a lot of the buildings that were lost from Sigma's men, and she helped rebuild much of what Smytus and Krackus destroyed as well. Once, she even saved three people from being killed by a support cable on a bridge. They didn't even know it was coming. The truck wouldn't start up, and Vexus saw that the cable was about to snap and fall on them. It would've ripped the truck right in half. She pushed it out of the way. Out of the desperation of trying to move the truck as quickly as possible, she accidently pushed a little too hard, which didn't hurt them, but she tripped and fell. The cable fell and crushed both of her legs. The men who were saved were the ones that testified, and they all said they saw that she was frantically trying to save their lives. They even gave her gifts and everything, but she refused them because she didn't think she was worthy. She told them that she was so used to having so many luxuries in the past that it would be unfair for her to take something that valuable from them. I'm telling you, Vexus is not at all the villain she used to be. We are even pretty good friends now," Jenny explained with the same smile.

"I am surprised, but I can tell you are not a liar. I will say this, Vexus, you don't have the look of villainy in your eyes at all. You actually look saddened to me," The woman pointed out.

"I am sad. I find that when one regrets his or her past, depending on how many bad things they've done, it adds to their sadness. I have an exact list of all of my wrongs, and the list is quite long: too long. I add those things up in my heart and often feel I don't deserve the life I'm living now. I don't feel like I deserve the friendship I have with Jenny. I held a powerful handgun in my hand one night considering killing myself because of my regret. I was in the Wakeman house at the time. Jenny's sister, XJ4 ran in frantically trying to stop me from using one of the weapons intended for Jenny's missions to commit suicide. Ever since Jenny attempted to kill herself, XJ4 immediately knew what I was thinking of possibly doing, even though I hadn't even pointed it at my head yet. I remember her snatching it out of my hand and throwing it to the side and hugging me tight. Both my arms hung and were pressed up against my body and I stared up at the ceiling in such distress…and crying so much. That was about five months ago. Jenny and her sister XJ3 walked into the room and quickly figured out what happened after seeing the gun carelessly lying on the floor. The fact that they cared for me so much…the way they did everything they could to console me that night…is probably the only thing keeping me from trying to kill myself again. I have been wondering for a few moments now; have I hurt anyone you loved?" Vexus asked with obvious anguish and regret in her eyes.

"Okay…give me a second…I didn't think somebody like you could stir my emotions so much. All right. You having an exact list doesn't mean that includes the specific people you've hurt. In that case, I'll tell you. Yes, you did. My uncle died in the war against your empire when I was very young. I dare say I loved him more than my parents. My parents died of natural cause years later. My uncle was the one who taught me fluent English, and I taught it to the others. He was our only real link to the outside world. That hurt me more than you know. I should try to kill you now, but I can't bring myself to do that to someone who is trying to repent. I do forgive you since I see how disappointed in yourself that you are, but it'll be some time before my anger dies down. Speaking of which, I feel a little stupid about trying to use these fifty year old guns on you two. I doubt they would do much damage at all even if we tried," The woman said.

"I'm not going to lie to you. I ran a scan on those weapons, and they would only damage our paint jobs. We're not here to hurt you. I promise you Vexus won't hurt you either," Jenny assured.

The woman signaled the others to lower their guns and to come out of hiding. They all did and slowly formed a small crowd around the two robots.

The eldest man there asked "Why did you to come here exactly?"

"Do any of you know about the demons that have also surfaced on Earth?" Jenny asked.

There was shock at first because they knew from the way the question was asked meant that it was a problem that now had to be personally dealt with. The second reaction following was of something they found to be slightly humorous.

"Surfaced? They didn't rise up out of hell. They're all around us all the time. They've walked the surface since the Most High put them here…to the best of our understanding of course. From time to time, they show themselves, but to our knowledge, never this high a degree. The one's you are referring to though, did they reveal their names?" The man asked.

"The one I fought with…and nearly died trying said his name was Suija. He said the name of the other demon, and his name is Enja," Jenny explained observing their now worried expressions.

A moment later, the woman asked "Why them? That is not what we wanted to hear. He nearly killed you. How did he become so powerful? The Suija of legend was never strong enough to defeat someone like you. Did you upgrade since?"

"Mm hmm, but I still don't think I can beat him," Jenny replied.

"And that's why you are here now? You heard Yima probably knew something that could help you?" The man said as the circle widened around Jenny.

Suddenly, the strongest young man swung his rifle butt at Jenny's face. She instinctively dodged it. The man then swung his leg and carried both of Jenny's legs up into the air making the back of her head start falling towards the ground. Before she had a chance to retaliate, he elbowed her in the face and forced his whole body down with her smashing her head into the ground. Afterwards, he got up so quickly and skillfully, and the pointed the rifle at her face.

Jenny laughed and said "I see your point quite clearly. How can I expect to defeat him using the kind of fighting techniques I usually use? The first time I learned this was when Misty tossed me around so easily. Suija has been around for a long time. His experience in fighting is many ages more refined than mine."

"I was wondering what was going on. I didn't think you could actually hurt Jenny, so I didn't retaliate just then," Vexus said.

The young man then helped Jenny to her feet, and then he said "Your fighting is too conventional. It's also predictable. For a normal man, the sweep kick I just did would've been nearly impossible because of how high off the ground I carried you and trying to keep my own balance as well. Suija knows most moves any normal fighter would try and will take immediate advantage of them. Then you have to be able to immediately follow up and perform just as well as the last move or better very quickly. No time can be wasted. I do know that if we were in a real fight, you would easily beat me because I can't hurt you. Now, we know about Suija. Obviously, none of us are old enough to have ever seen him. Many generations ago, the Japanese government would train not only ninja and samurai, but they would also train certain families such as ours to serve as reserve militia in case we were ever needed. They would also send us to attempt to fight demons if they should ever attack. That's why we know of Suija. They no longer have a need for most of us, so official training stopped hundreds of years ago. Our ancestors just felt it necessary to continue passing the knowledge down. In the past hundred years or so, we decided that we should attempt to see how far we could actually take our training to reach the level we are now. Our elder can perform my moves better, but his age wouldn't have given him the strength to carry you to the ground the way I did without hurting himself. If you were a human, he could do it. Actually, I think I might have bruised my elbow on your face."

"I hope you didn't fracture your elbow," Vexus said.

"It's fine. I used the back of my elbow. I wouldn't hit a hard solid surface like her armor with my elbow dead on. Your concern is appreciated though," The young man said.

The eldest man then spoke up saying "These demons are…before I say that, we only know about the other demon, Enja, from the stories we've heard, which are more like rumors as far as we've known for a very long time. The Japanese government would try to cover up the fact that a lot of demon attacks ever took place because they didn't want the citizens panicking. By the time the news finally spread of any specific attack, there were so many different stories describing one event that people didn't know what to believe. They were treated as rumors. Out of the short list of demons, Enja's name popped up a few times. Very little is known about him. But as I was saying before, these demons are actually inhabiting bodies of flesh. Exactly how they go about it is something we cannot explain. They don't bother to tell anyone about it. There are different rules about how they operate and how to deal with them when they are only in spiritual form or when they inhabit flesh. Keep in mind, this flesh is not normal flesh. It appears normal, but it is an abomination, a perversion of the flesh God made. We do not know all the details of that part though. We do know that this deformed flesh is made to be very strong on purpose, but we don't know how. There are rituals for sealing them away or casting them away, but we don't know if the same rituals work if they are in a flesh body. We can teach you all we know about it, but we are afraid the most likely scenario will be that you will have to first destroy his flesh form and then perform the ritual as quickly as possible before he escapes and attempts to find another body. The worst problem is that we know of no one who has done this successfully which then, of course, leads us to wonder why they disappear without warning and stay missing for hundreds of years. It's a cycle we have failed to understand."

"Okay, but how do I prepare myself to fight his fleshly body? I don't think I have so much time for training. The best training is with my family and friends, but we end up breaking parts of each other and end up spending too much time in the repair bay," Jenny explained.

The first woman put her gun down and then said "Don't come at me yet, but show me a series of moves you might try on an enemy. It doesn't matter which one of you does it."

One little boy said "None of that too fast for the human eyes stuff."

"Can I give it a go this time, Jenny?" Vexus asked.

"Go right ahead," Jenny said.

Vexus performed a series of twelve punches followed by four kicks. The woman made some distance from the crowd and then closed her eyes for a minute and remained perfectly still.

She then opened her eyes and said "Okay then Vexus, try those exact same moves on me, but don't hit too hard."

"I will be careful," Vexus said as she approached the woman.

Vexus charged her and began performing the moves and was surprised by how well she was able to dodge every one of them.

When they stopped, the woman said "You are using an alien combat system, but I figured it out pretty quickly. Training physically is always beneficial, but you need to train mentally as well. Can you two make new programs right now if you wanted to?"

The both responded with a yes, and then she continued saying "A program that makes you feel as though you are in an actual fight with an enemy would be a great help to you. I used a form of meditation that allows me to visualize fighting with you and I tried many different things before I was able to dodge your moves well. Real life is a different matter, for sure, but I had practiced enough times in my mind to know how to dodge them. When training with Suija in your minds, you need to use what you do know about his method of fighting and train for long periods of time with him. You will then need to do whatever you need to do with your bodies to make them perform in sync with the fight in your mind. You will need to be able to feel as though you are actually there as much as possible without becoming lost in there and not being able to come back out. Do you two think it can be done? It is, unfortunately, the best advice I can give you with the time you have to prepare."

"It's so much more complicated than it sounds. The program is not the problem; it's actually using that training in real life afterwards. But I understand it's probably the best shot we have right now. It's like; I have a program that allows me to make small cities if I want to, and then interact with the objects if I want to. It's similar to my dream mode, but in this case, I'm not asleep. I'm just not interacting with this world. I may have to ask my mom about how to program certain aspects that will allow me to make the virtual world feel more realistic than I'm already able to. It's not a very complete program at all. Ahhhhhhhh…sorry for that. I know it sounded like my audio functions lagged, but I was just interrupted in mid-speech by my mom telling me that she's working on the program as we speak now that she knows the situation. I also want you guys to know that my mom also worked out the details with how you guys will be treated. You will be compensated for your help and your government will continue to leave you alone as usual. My presence here will not hinder your lives," Jenny explained.

The eldest man then said "I was going to mention that issue, but since it's already been taken care of, it seems we don't need to worry about that now.

He continued whispering "Did those people in whatever town you landed in tell you about how we chased people away from here a long time ago?"

"I was actually trying to avoid that subject, but yes," Jenny answered in a kind of confused whisper herself.

Vexus signaled Jenny to cease all transmissions.

A second later, Jenny realized what she was saying, and then said "Oh! I gotcha. One moment…..okay. None of what you're about to say on the subject will be heard outside this forest. Vexus just told me to turn off all transmissions to the outside world for the moment. It's a good thing my hearing sensitivity was not high enough for your last question to be heard by anyone on the other end."

The elder then stopped whispering and continued saying "Yes, we did shoot and kill quite a few people. That's what happened. We would rather have avoided that, but we kept telling our government to leave us alone. Why was there an issue? Our argument was that we wanted to live in our own country, where The Almighty put us, without being connected to this modern society. They wouldn't stand for a group of people cutting off all financial ties to this country, so they kept trying many times to force us to live in the cities so we would contribute to this system. There's two reasons why they finally left us alone. The first is when they realized we keep our numbers so small, it would be more trouble than it's worth to force less than fifty people who don't even have many valuable things to join the society. You see fourteen of us here, but the others, making a total of forty one of us, are settled in other parts of this forest. And you need to know they are all quite aware of your presences, but they don't know the details yet. But the thing is, you see, our government assumed there were more like five hundred of us. The amount of money five hundred people would earn would equal quite a bit of tax money for the government. So you see, it's about the money. The other reason they left us alone, of course, is they know we will always retaliate, and people will probably end up dead each time."

Jenny then asked in a concerned tone, "But what about the civilians you killed?"

"Civilians; soldiers; what difference does it make, first of all. They're all humans. We never killed any children to put your mind at ease. You don't seem to know how many times they tried force us out of this forest. They tried so many cunning schemes and outright lies that we couldn't tell the difference between civilians and soldiers or even police anymore. They would send soldiers dressed as civilians and sometimes the other way around. Once, some of our people started being killed by some of their attempts to drive us out, so we panicked. We were afraid for all our safeties, so defended ourselves with force. It was kind of like a small war at that point. It wasn't until our numbers nearly halved that they finally found out that there weren't many of us to begin with, so they finally left us alone because they knew they weren't going to benefit much from us anyway. We know we were wrong for killing those people, but we were not going to give in and be forced away from our homes," The elder explained.

Another woman spoke up saying angrily "And that's not all. This sort of thing is happening all over the world today. Your country is still showing signs of it. Some of the Native Americans are still living in the deserts today. Why, because they're used to it now, and because they want nothing to do with your modern society. Remember the Trail of Tears? Those Europeans forced them away from land that was lush and rich with resources to a barren land that no one wanted. Their lives were mostly destroyed, and if it weren't for the grace of The Almighty, they most likely wouldn't have survived the trip there."

Vexus then whispered loudly in a very distressed tone with her hands on both sides of her head saying "Oh God!"

She then started walking passed the crowd very frantically, and when Jenny stopped her long enough to ask what was wrong, Vexus strained out her words saying "I did the same thing to millions of people. I just…I need a minute alone."

Vexus broke free of Jenny's hand and ran over to a tree where everyone could see her and crouched down hugging her knees facing the tree as if she was sent in the time out corner.

Jenny looked back at the crowd and said "If it weren't for her display right then, I don't think I would've caught onto how dire this is so quickly. It would've sunk in after a little while, but I get where you're coming from now. And you know what the worst part is, if I tried to stop every situation like this that's happening around the world today, every government in the world would put me on their hit list. I hate knowing I have to sit here and be tight-lipped about all this."

"Well, then, I see you now understand perfectly. I know about how you can't fly into some countries without approval first, and most of them happen to be the countries suffering from extreme conditions like ethnic violence and famine. And whenever they do allow it, it's because you're there to solve some major catastrophe or kill some aliens trying to invade. You were allowed to be created only for protecting this world as a whole, but not to actually fix its problems. These governments see you as nothing but a tool to keep the way things are from collapsing. That would mean less money and control for them. As long as you remain ignorant to this, they don't have a reason to devise a way to shut you down. And by the way you're grinning, I see this isn't a surprise to you," The elder pointed out.

"Not at all. I haven't felt the reality of it for very long now, but I did start piecing this together in my mind recently. The Trail of Tears thing just mentioned shed a bit more light on everything, but that's also not surprising either. And I already guessed that I have been on the suspect list for quite some time now. I'm almost certain they're onto me. If they're not, I'd be surprised," Jenny explained with the same grin.

"About how long do you think you've been on the suspect list?" The elder asked.

"I can't say for sure, but I would have to say nearly two years if they noticed how strange my behavior has been. After Sigma, I would often float in one spot on the upper atmosphere or in outer space for hours at a time during my free time just thinking and listening to the Earth below me: the radio waves, the internet, and the sounds of people. I wanted to make sense of why this life is the way it is. I started questioning things, basically, and I believe when they saw how many times I would sit up there in space, they probably figured out my reason for doing it, or at least sort of. They know now that I'm no longer taking life for its face value, and now they know to suspect me. If they haven't thought of that after all this time, I'd be really damned surprised," Jenny explained.

"I would be too," The elder added.

The first woman then spoke up saying "You might want to say something to your mom again soon before the powers that be start getting suspicious."

Jenny grinned again and said "I just did, but you don't need to worry about that. I've learned recently how to do what I call Log File Forging. I don't know how technologically versed you guys are, but a computer is supposed to be designed with a function that will keep a record of what I do. I learned how to force certain logs not to be written. I can't do all of them yet. I also intentionally corrupted the file that controls my transmitters. I wasn't able to send a message during my conversation even if I wanted to because I broke it on purpose. The record of the fact that I broke it hasn't been written either. If they check me out, my systems will report that it corrupted on its own and that I didn't realize it until a minute ago. I remade that program and now my transmitters work again. Not only that, there is such strict guidelines on what situations will allow them to force me give them my personal information that chances are they won't be able to even if they wanted to. This isn't a situation that would call for it. I wouldn't be too surprised if they tried to pull some strings to force it to happen, but it doesn't seem likely at all."

"That was pretty good thinking. And I bet you're even presenting false conversation to them right now, aren't you?" The elder asked.

"Yeah, but I'm starting to run out of ideas on how to make it sound convincing. All right then. I don't really have too much time left. Will it take a long time to learn these rituals?" Jenny asked.

"Not a very long time, but it does require some practice. But as far as I know, computers are fast learners. If you really are pressed for time, then we should get started," The elder replied.


	21. Chapter 21

When Jenny and Vexus left that place, instead of heading straight home, they were actually now traveling North, but not so very far. Accompanying them was the first woman they met. She revealed to them that her name was Miyabi. She was being carried by Jenny.

Miyabi told them there was something they needed to see before they face Suija again, and that they would need to be accompanied by someone who knew where it was. She assured them that she was aware of the danger, but she didn't seem so concerned. They knew they were all about to go underwater because of what Miyabi told them, so Jenny detached her left hand and formed it into an oxygen mask for her, and then grew another hand.

When they arrived at the sight, there were soldiers and a couple of government officials waiting for them. Miyabi needed to sign liability statements in order to have Jenny carry her underwater. Both Jenny and Vexus now being waterproofed made this job much easier.

What they weren't really aware of was that this wasn't a very simple task by any means. Once they were underwater, they discovered that they had to navigate through quite an elaborate system of caves. Miyabi told them the only reason she knew where to go was because of very detailed instructions left by previous generations of their family. She had never been down there herself personally. After navigating for over twenty minutes, they finally reached an area where they could surface from the water, but they were still in a cave.

As Jenny shined very bright light from her eyes, Miyabi finally removed her mask and said "Even I have to say that I'm just a little surprised that these instructions were correct. Since we made it this far, I doubt we should have any reason to believe the rest of the instructions are false. We still need to travel through this maze for a little while before we reach our destination."

"This must be one amazing secret for us to need to travel so far to get there. One other thing I find amazing is just how stable this rock is. It's a bit chilly down here as well I feel the need to add," Vexus said.

"That also let's me know we're on the right track," Miyabi said as they all started walking.

"I have a very weird feeling about this for sure," Jenny said.

"As far as I know, there shouldn't be much at all to worry ourselves about," Miyabi assured.

"On another subject; Vexus, I've been meaning to ask…why were you so quick to volunteer to be Miyabi's sparring partner? You seemed to rush into it pretty quickly," Jenny said without looking her in the eyes so as not to shine such a bright stream of light into her eyes.

A couple of seconds later, Vexus said "Oh! I almost forgot that I even did that. Since you asked, first, I wanted to play more of a part in this mission that just kind of standing around. I wanted to feel useful. The second reason…hmm…it's because in some odd way, I kinda…this is hard for me to say outright, but…it's Miyabi's uncle. She seemed…to want to vent some frustration, so…I…volunteered…to allow her to take it out one me."

They all stopped in their tracks and saw how embarrassed Vexus looked at her statement. Vexus found it hard to look them in the eyes. A few seconds later, Miyabi had a frustrated expression form on her face.

She raised her voice and said "I have something to tell you that you need to hear, Vexus. Stop beating yourself up all the time. As a child, I wanted nothing more than to tear out whatever keeps you alive. At the same time, I couldn't help but respect how powerful you seemed. It sounds like crazy talk, but people are like that sometimes. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a great leader too. I liked the idea. I matured one day…and decided to play as big a leadership role as I could to help the people in the forest. Our elder is the real leader, but I'm like a second in command if you want to call it that. Before you say anything, I know it's hard. I can't begin to imagine your level of guilt. If you are feeling guilty, naturally, you are going to go through this regardless. Right now you seem so weak and helpless like a young teenage girl or something. How do you expect Suija to take you seriously if you face him like this?"

Vexus looked down ashamed saying "I already don't think he does. When he gauged all of us, he seemed to look right pass me as if I was of no concern to him."

"That probably means that he knows that he can take full advantage of how distracted you are with whatever the hell is troubling you. He doesn't need to know the details to do that. A few years ago, when you used your guilt to enrage you enough to save us from Smytus and Krackus, that was that one time it worked out for you. The longer you focus on that guilt, the heavier it'll become, and it'll slow your ass down. Jenny seems to be getting over her problem pretty well, but you're just digging yourself deeper into that pit of depression everyday," Miyabi explained.

Vexus seemed to be panicking at this point because she didn't know what to say or do. Miyabi calmed herself down and the anger in her face disappeared because she realized she was scaring Vexus. She cautiously walked over to Vexus and grabbed both of her hands.

"Please just calm down. Don't give yourself a panic attack. I don't hate you. I hate what you did, but who wouldn't? I had to learn to move on without my uncle. I'm just happy he no longer has to endure this terrible world the way we do. I know that I won't benefit from staying in the past. He fought to protect us so that we can live as happy a life as we can. He would be sad if he knew that we let his loss destroy us. He also wouldn't appreciate it if I became bitter and unforgiving. I forgive you, Vexus. I know it's much harder to forgive yourself, but you need to try. Besides, I feel a sense of happiness that I've never felt before knowing that you are now willing to fight for me. That's a big change, and I feel like you haven't seen that yet," Miyabi said.

"I just wish I could bring your uncle back so you can see him again. It's so unfair what I did to you. But I see your point. I think I can calm myself now. Thank you for your words. I think you really did just save me from a panic attack," Vexus said.

Jenny spoke up saying "You're a pretty good motivational speaker, Miyabi. It's a trait that I'm sure gives your people plenty of comfort; though I don't know exactly how accurate you are about me getting over my problem. Knowing I almost killed myself and let everybody down hit me hard. Finding a way to move on is definitely the right way to go about things. I just like the fact that things are looking up in certain areas. Yeah, Suija and Enja might kill us all, but at least we'll die as friends if it comes to that. Dying alone with no friends is a much more frightening thought to me. While we were headed to your village, Miyabi, Vexus there actually reached out and gave me one of those comforting motherly hugs to calm me down. See, her blush just then gives it away. But really though, it's things like that that give me more of a reason to wanna keep fighting for a better tomorrow. It makes me feel like all this is actually worth our struggle."

"That's the kind of attitude I had to have to help my people," Miyabi added.

"Okay. If you girls are ready, we can start moving again. I think I'll be fine now," Vexus said.

Miyabi let go of Vexus's hands and then asked "Are you ready, Jenny?"

"Yeah, whenever you are," Jenny answered.

They all finally started moving again. By this time, once again, Jenny was too far underground to be able to contact anyone from the surface. She does like to feel human, but this is a little too human for her tastes. If Miyabi were trapped down there, she wouldn't be able to contact anyone to tell them she needs help. Jenny imagined herself in that kind of situation and it made her feel quite uncomfortable.

After traveling carefully for about fifteen minutes, they all started to notice a light source coming from the distance in front of them.

"No way. There shouldn't be any light at all in here. This is just like a movie," Jenny yelled.

Miyabi stopped walking suddenly and started laughing. After realizing why she was laughing, even Vexus started laughing.

While still laughing, Miyabi said "A movie? I should've…guessed you would say something like that. I haven't seen…much television in my…life, but I know what a movie is. Well, hear you are actually in witness to what you normally think is make-believe. What you are about to see, on the other end, will make you think just that."

"Well, judging by how much colder it's getting in here, I would say you're right," Jenny said with a kind of excited look on her face.

When they finally arrived at their destination, they all had a surprised look on their faces, even Miyabi. She didn't even realize how amazing this would all seem. There was sitting against a wall in a large room a massive block of ice that actually glowed. It was probably the most amazing thing any of them had ever seen, and it was partly because surprisingly enough, there was no frost collected on anything. The most amazing thing, however, was what was inside of the block of ice, the thing Miyabi wanted them to see.

"So this is it, huh?" Jenny asked with an excited but sort of disbelieving tone.

Inside of the ice was a young teenaged girl frozen in place about five feet off the ground. She was curled into a kind of fetal position. She was fully clothed with both eyes closed. She appeared to be about thirteen or so.

"This is it, all right. I never imagined it all to look so incredible though. The girl you see there is what is known to most, who are still aware of her, as The Ice Princess. To others, she is known as the Maiden of Ice. Our family is one of the few who know that her proper name is Rimururu. I know you have the strength to break through this ice, but don't do that. She's been there for hundreds of years. It is my belief that she is already dead anyway. Her body appears healthy and young, but I do not believe her spirit still inhabits her body. It would seem strange to me that God would allow her to live this long. Not only that, but this ice is obviously held together by a form of forbidden sorcery. If you release it without knowing what you are doing, you could release more evil into this world," Miyabi explained.

"And I was just about to drill her out of there too. I see now it might do more harm than good. But I don't understand why we're down here if we're not gaining from the situation," Jenny pointed out.

"One thing you need to understand by seeing this is that sorcery is very real. It is powerful and can be very destructive. The Father strictly forbade the use of this power because it calls on power that is not of him, and that's why the ritual we taught you involves calling on the name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. As far as we know, all sorcery is demonic in origin. We have no way to prove that, however. God will not be happy with you if you call on The Devil or any other demon to help you. You can see for yourself what happened to her when she or whoever else called on a demon for help. This eventually happened to her. We don't know if she sealed herself here or if it was someone else's doing. The seriousness of this is the first thing you need to know," Miyabi explained.

"And what's the second?" Vexus asked.

"Whichever one of you wants to volunteer to do this is welcome to try. I don't even know if robots like yourselves are able, but I think you should try. We need answers. Don't do it yet. I need to tell you something first. I do not believe simply touching this thing will count as you performing sorcery, but doing so is supposed to allow you to see into a history of things that have taken place. For each person who has tried, there have been different results. But if it does count as you performing sorcery, if I were you, I would tell God that you do not intend to offend him by doing this before touching it," Miyabi explained with a dead serious expression.

"Just trying to be on the safe side then, right? Okay then," Jenny said as she closed her eyes and said a silent prayer in her head.

After Jenny was done, she opened her eyes, took a few steps forward, and then reached out and placed her hand on the ice. Nearly immediately, she went into a deep trance. The others could tell it was working because of Jenny's trembling body and the sound of her processors speeding up.

Jenny then thought to herself "_What the hell am I seeing?_ _War…nature…life…sadness…happiness…love…nations…secrecy…sorcery…lies…truths…good deeds…bad deeds…those people don't seem normal, whoever they are…I see defiance…I see oaths…I see rituals…I see symbols…I see longing…I see death…I see crying…I see the strong and I see the weak…I see the work of God and I see the work of The Devil. This all seems like a warning and a cry for help. She's trying to warn us all. Just like those strange people I see a minute ago, I also notice Suija had the same odd nature to him. They don't behave like humans. There's something else about them that seems foreign, but I can't explain it. Maybe those strange people are also demons, but there are people who are obviously human working alongside them. Are they crazy? Now I get it. They're working together. The demons offer them power and money and the humans give them help in return for their own Satanic agendas. This girl sees the truth that has been hidden from us and is trying to warn us, but can't. I can feel that she is no longer alive though. Miyabi was right_."

Jenny pulled away with what sounded like the closest thing to a strained gasp that a robot can make, and then continued saying in a voice that sounded like she could cry "She's not alive, Miyabi. You were right after all. This is more like a projection of her thoughts that seem to repeat themselves over and over again. I didn't stay in there long enough to see it repeat, but I assumed it likely would sooner or later. She's trying to warn us of how men and The Devil has worked together to make this world the terrible place it is today. The details are hard to understand as her thoughts are racing like she was panicking while making this message."

She then raised her voice quite high, and then said "And what's worse is I figured that was the fucking case. It figures Satan would manipulate certain people into helping him push his evil goals along. This all really is God versus Satan: the freaking ultimate clashing of good and evil. They've been butting heads ever since the beginning and we're caught in the middle."

Vexus didn't know how to react, but Miyabi spoke up saying "Well, now you see it the way we do. We don't know the details either. But if Satan did everything he could to get Jesus murdered on that cross, then why would he also not do everything he can to then ruin the people Jesus was trying to save. Exactly how he goes about it is the part that's confusing, but the world around us is bad enough to make me think it's mostly because of him."

At this point, they could plainly see that the things Jenny saw were affecting her emotions on a high level. She finally looked back at the girl and asked "What's that in her hand? She has a dagger in her right hand, and in her left hand, she has a small piece of red and white torn cloth. No, I remember now. She was with somebody who wore an outfit with those colors. The feeling I got from it was…that it…that she…she was her big sister."

By this point, Jenny was on the verge of crying. She dropped to her knees, put her face and hands on the ice, and started crying while staring at the girl. At this point, she was intentionally blocking the images from entering her mind. She felt like she had seen enough.

"I think…she was trying…trying to save her sister. You poor girl," Jenny said as she continued crying.

A few seconds later, Vexus built up enough courage to touch the ice herself after saying a prayer herself. She didn't know how seriously to take the prayer, but she did it anyway. She focused on the knife and cloth instead to see if anything would happen.

Vexus suddenly found herself inside of a small house in broad daylight sitting on the floor on her knees the way Japanese people often do. Sitting in front of her was the girl she believed to likely be Rimururu's sister.

The girl began to speak saying "Whoever you are, please listen to what I have to say. My name is Nakoruru. Some call me The Maiden of Light or the The Maiden of Spirit. If you have heard those names, I'd prefer you not call me by such. Please just call me by my proper name. What you see before you is but a mere reflection of my spirit. By the time you see this, I will probably have returned to the Earth from where I came. Your world, everything is in danger. I love this beautiful nature, and I devoted my life to protect it and the people who live in it. There are many demons and many evil men trying to ruin it for their own gain. It hardly makes any sense. I don't know how to explain it to you. It's hard to know where the truth begins and where the lies end. I'm sure by now if you have found my sister, then you have also begun to notice there must be a reason why the world is so bad. I pray that you are not from too far into the future, because if you are, then the world around you must be terrible. It's bad enough in this time. And if you are from the future, I hope you have not been made too ignorant to understand what I'm telling you. Please, whoever you are, trust in the one who created us. Don't fall in love with the riches of this world. Always remember to love each other as you love yourself. Don't let the evil one destroy your soul. I can't…even concentrate anymore. I'm sorry."

And with that, Vexus suddenly snapped back into reality with the most disturbed expression the other two ever saw her have. She finally took her hand off the ice.

"What happened?" Jenny asked while trying to calm herself down.

Vexus repeated to them verbatim everything Nakoruru had said to her.

"Then I was right about the fact that they're sisters. And the way she sounded about the warning. She sounded like it was urgent. If she was urgent that long ago, then how urgent should we be?" Jenny asked.

"Very," Vexus answered while trying to regain her composure.

A moment later, Miyabi added "Yes…very."


	22. Chapter 22

Jenny put forth a great effort to fabricate certain pieces of the events that took place to insure that no one was suspicious of what took place in case she was required to hand over the full recording, but to her surprise, they took her word for what happened and pursued it no further. This was about that time when she became even more worried. Too many things regarding keeping out of suspicion were falling into place too easily. She wondered if someone was ordering the authorities not to pry too deeply, but she also wondered if she was merely just paranoid. She is the hero after all, right? Why would a beacon and symbol of hope like her be suspected of this kind of secrecy? Why would even the governments of the world think so? She's never been known for this before anyway, so maybe she's being given the benefit of the doubt, even on a subconscious level. Perhaps no one suspects her. There's really no way she would try to rest easy though. She knows that must keep her guard up more than ever.

Jenny contemplated these things as she sat at her desk in her room for a few hours. These weren't the only things that bothered her though.

As she slowly tapped the tip of her pencil against a piece of paper, she thought to herself "_Demons and humans working together. That is certainly what that vision was showing me. At first I tried to convince myself that what I thought I was seeing was something else entirely, as if I just misinterpreted it. I was saying it out loud and didn't totally believe my own words. Then there was that Nakoruru girl. She said it too. I have a hard time believing that we both got it wrong. Miyabi didn't seem to object to that at all. Wouldn't they know better than us? Fuck, this is frustrating. But who…and why would they? If demons are supposed to be evil, what could these humans be thinking? I guess if they are just as evil, then maybe they might consider demons to be nice company. And maybe, just maybe, the demons may think that about the evil humans as well. That sounds crazy if you think that demons think so little of us. But who knows. Maybe demons get tired of seeing and talking to each other everyday and maybe they find some enjoyment from talking to certain humans. It's a disturbing thought to think some humans probably have very close and more or less intimate relationships with demons. But I can see it. Yeah, I surely can. If I were a terrible monster trapped in a room with a being I cared nothing for, sooner or later, I would probably give in and try conversing with that being, and purely because I'm lonely. Demons are trapped here on Earth, so thousands of years worth of seeing the same faces over and over…yeah, I'd probably get crazy enough to want to talk to a human too. That's a jacked up thought. I wanna avoid demons altogether. I don't want to talk to any of them. Imagine me befriending one. Man…no…just no. I can't do that. I just know that no good would ever come from that. Just imagine how God would look at me if I did. I think I'll just avoid that. But really though, who could it be that does this? I bet by now it would be so utterly difficult to find out who they are. With powerful superhero types like us hangin' around, they would go to great lengths not to blow their covers. It's not like I could get away with harsh interrogation, the very high level necessary to get that kind of info out of them_."

A few seconds later, she cackled a little and grinned while thinking "_Aint' that a son of a bitch? I'm thinking about basically torturing somebody to tell me about there involvement with demons. What the fuck is doing something evil like that to ask somebody why they are so evil_?"

Jenny's door was wide open, and at that moment, XJ7 rolled into the room with a can of oil.

When she handed it to Jenny, she said "Here you go."

"Thank you, XJ7. I already know you're curious about what I'm thinking. Basically, why is it that the easiest way to do something is often the most evil way?" Jenny asked.

"Yeeeaaahh…about that. You're not the only XJ sister to go there lately. When demons actually show up, it's hard not to start thinking about the consequences of your own actions. This whole situation is just madness. I think that's a good way to describe it. I haven't answered your question directly yet because I know what you're thinking. As soon as you mentioned to us that thing about humans and demons working together, I remember thinking to myself 'that's actually…not a surprise at all.' It seems most people would probably say that's preposterous, and I think that's because they watch too much TV. Demons, as far as I know, are not like the ones we see in movies from time to time. They usually only kill like monsters or wild animals do. Real demons spend great amounts of time manipulating people. That means they're usually very limited in what they can actually do to us physically. Suija is an exception, and that means that demons like him are rare. I think we would've seen more than just a couple if that were the case. That means that ordinary demons must often feel like they need help from someone who lives in a physical body, namely humans. Robots are kinda new, so if there are any of us that work with demons, there surely aren't many, at least not enough to be seriously worried about. You want to beat that information out of somebody, but you're the hero, so you can't just do that. I just knew that's what was on your mind. I just somehow knew that. But now you're looking at me funny. You didn't know I thought about these kinds of things, did you? You might be kind of unique with that whole, uh, trying to solve life's riddles thing you do. I'm referring to your method of course. Well, you let it out of the closet a little while ago, and I'm a little bit surprised you didn't seriously think other people would quickly catch on and start trying to do basically the same thing. I'm not as advanced as you, but I have my own way of going about it," XJ7 explained with a grin that looked as if she was challenging Jenny.

With a kind of irritated grin of her own, Jenny replied "I can't believe this shi… You mean to say I went through all that trouble devising this strategy, and now everybody else ripped it off of me, and are now about to make me old news already? If anything, I bet X, Vexus, and XJ8 are farther along than most too. This shit is just like those companies that sell basically the same product as another, but with a different name. You make me feel the way a restaurant owner does when another owner builds his joint right across the street from mine. Well…sort of. My issue with you guys isn't exactly unwanted competition per say, but I do feel irritated by how you guys picked up on it so fast when it took me years just to think it up."

XJ7 felt she just couldn't help but laugh at Jenny's obvious frustration.

With her expression more or less the same, Jenny continued saying "To make it worse, your laughter tells me that I don't get much credit for having this much of a head start either. And it's like you said, because I'm no longer unique. Man, it's the same feeling I got when the reploids showed up. I'm not on the front page news much anymore because of it. In fact, I'm usually only mentioned as a footnote occasionally nowadays."

"What's worse is that the reason you don't get that much credit is because most of the world hasn't caught on because they can't fathom how big what you did actually is. It's like you invented a product, you know, that's amazing, but uh, since the public can't see it for what it is yet, they have no reason to buy it. Now that your invention has already been copied, yours won't be seen as being as special as it is, even if they do figure it out. This world is full of the strangest crap, ain't it?" XJ7 asked with a grin.

"Yeah, but on the other side, if they did figure it out, they could even have a reason to fear me…or maybe even start asking me the kind of questions that would make life very difficult for me. It's a good thing, in a way, that I haven't fully explained to them the extent of what I did yet. Then there's our government. I'm not sure if they have really figured it out yet either, but as knowledgeable as they seem to be, I have a hard time believing that they haven't. Either way, they're going to stay quiet about it to avoid trouble with the public. They don't want to give them the idea that I suspect the government of anything unpleasant. Like I said, the moment they attack me, I'm going to look for someone to defend me. Nearly the entire population is on my side nowadays, and that's a lot of people to come to my defense…and shoot…that also means they might even try to frame me for something. I'm just glad that my reputation has been basically spotless lately. That way, it'll be difficult for the public to believe that I actually did it, whatever it is. That doesn't mean it's impossible, but they'll have to work extra hard to successfully frame me. That…also means I have to work extra hard not to mess up," Jenny said in a way sounding like she was trying to force a lot of thoughts out in a very short amount of time.

"So, where would you mostly likely mess up if you do?" XJ7 asked.

Jenny closed her eyes for a few seconds, reopened them, and then said "During a mission. Thank you for making me aware of that. It seems they would likely try to make any failures of mine seem way worse than they actually are: anything to reduce the public's reliance on me. The less important to the public I seem, the easier it would be to frame me for something completely bogus. XJ7, you're a whole lot smarter than you used to be, and not…necessarily that I ever thought you were stupid."

"In those days, I just didn't like getting involved in these serious matters, so much so, that I chose not to think too much about them. Now I feel like I can't afford not to. But on that note, on the subject of the old days, you know what I am reminded of from time to time? You actually weren't the first of us to attempt suicide. Yeah, that's crazy, isn't it? That was actually me," XJ7 said with no change in the tone of her voice.

She waited for it, and when she saw Jenny's look of realization, she continued saying "Yeah, you remember that now, don't you? You were right in front of me when it happened. Dr. Locus was technically in control of me, but I'm the one that actually chose to blow myself up if you remember correctly."

Jenny's tone shifted some, and then she asked "Are you sure it wasn…oh. Oh yeah. You're right. You asked why he picked you, and then you said you were worthless, followed by a self-destruct sequence. It's a good thing your attempt wasn't successful either. You never did seem torn up about it though, just like now."

"Honestly, I'm not torn up at all, at least not about that. That was all the heat of the moment. It happened so quickly it seemed kind of like a dream or something. It was about half his fault because of his device trying to control me though, so I wasn't exactly thinking straight. Even back then, suicide was a rare and fleeting thought for me. I do have to admit though, even now, it is a scary thought to know that if it had worked, I really wouldn't be here now. Wild, isn't it?" XJ7 asked with a smile and no real hint of distress or sadness in her voice.

"I'm just checking, but you are feeling okay right now, aren't you?" Jenny asked.

"Sure. I'm quite fine. It's just an event that I feel like I shouldn't just completely forget just because it didn't seem to stand out much. One thing that does bother me more than that is when you were going through your phase, how I wasn't able to bring myself to talk to you much about trying to reconsider. If you actually remember, I really only said a few things here and there while everybody else was trying there hardest. Basically, I felt like I had little room to talk. How could I tell you to cheer up and value your life when I barely valued my own? I felt so hypocritical, but I'm also not a gifted motivational speaker anyway, so I mostly just watched from the sidelines as the others tried. It bothers me because I wish I could've done more. I'm just glad that everything turned out for the best in the end of all that. I've been the happiest I've ever been this past year. Right now, I have little to be sad about, I mean, besides the whole demon danger thing. Right now, I'm more afraid than sad. And I understand how awkward it was for me to go down this road so suddenly, but I felt it needed to be said," XJ7 explained.

"Yeah, but if you hadn't said anything at all, I probably would've attempted suicide sooner. Who really knows how that would've turned out? Thank you for that. Oh, and I have been meaning to ask you…about that guy…the soldier you were protecting. I never did ask if he was okay. I did, but I asked like a day later, and I never asked again since. And since you never said anything else about it, I mean, for all I know, he could've still died in the hospital," Jenny said.

A look of sadness formed on XJ7s face as it was obvious she had a painful flashback.

XJ7 sighed and said "He died about a week later. His wounds were so bad that even though they sewed him up, they would've taken a lot of time to heal enough on their own. They were putting him in danger by giving him too many drugs to kill the pain. He eventually went into a coma because his body couldn't deal with the pain for so long. He died in his sleep. Look, I know why you didn't ask me again since. Sigma had just been defeated and the worlds were being connected and all your time was taken doing all that repair work from when Smytus and Krackus attacked, so you naturally didn't have time to focus on him. Then we hadn't actually been able to see each other for about a month after that. When you did finally see me again, I seemed happy, so you let me be without reminding me of terrible things like that. It's not your fault. You did it because you didn't want me to be sad. I pretended to be happy because I actually anticipated that you might leave the issue alone."

"You didn't even know him, but seeing that happen to him hurt you really bad, didn't it?" Jenny asked with concern in her voice.

"I want to say that you have no idea of just how deep that wounded me, but you've seen more death than I have, so of course you know. Let's just drop this for now. I really don't feel like crying," XJ7 said as she fought to regain her composure.

"Okay then. That's fine. I'll leave it alone," Jenny agreed as she finally opened her can of oil.

A moment later, XJ7 finally noticed "What is that…that you're drawing over there?"

"Oh yeah, that. The drawing on the top of the sheet is supposed to be Melody's face, and the one on the bottom, which I'm still working on, is supposed to be a picture of this one guy I saw like only one time when I was only two and a half years old. Some things from back then are a bit of a blur to me. I used my short term memory more than my long term back then so I don't remember him that well. Plus, I'm not the greatest artist anyway. I was really just passing the time while I thought about the demon situation," Jenny explained.

"Did you have a crush on him?" XJ7 asked.

Slightly irritated, Jenny asked "Am I really that predictable?"

"I'm just curious," XJ7 confirmed.

"I just wanted to see what you were going to say, but no, not really. He seemed okay, I guess. I never got a chance to talk to him, and not that I was really trying to anyway. There was something a little bit strange about him which is why I remember him more than most other people from that far back. Since then I've seen other people with a similar look on their faces, so he wasn't alone. He seemed like he didn't care much for anything or anyone around him. It was like he was trying to ignore the world. That was the thought that went through my mind anyway," Jenny explained.

"I was offline like XJ's 1 through 6 and 8 were, but even so, I was aware of you, but only barely. I can't help but wonder what you were like back then though," XJ7 said.

"If you are imagining an extremely childish naïve fan girl, then you're right. But in truth, ever since I was about three months old, I knew the world was harsh and needed to be taken seriously. I've had a realistic concept of what life is really like most of the time, but I wanted certain things out of it regardless. I guess I figured that the reason so many humans never got the things I was looking for was because they didn't really try that much. Hah! Talk about me looking at the world from an innocent childish perspective. Now I see why so many people are bitter all the time. They tried many times to get what they wanted and never did, just like me. All this trying desperately to swim against the current will really wear you down. Every time I walk around in a crowded public place nowadays, I see so many angry faces. When was the last time you walked around in such a place and saw even one person with a smile on their face for more than just a moment?" Jenny asked while staring XJ7 directly in her eyes.

"Now that I think of it, it's not very often. You might find one or two out of like five hundred people like that, and that's if they happen to be in a good mood that day. The weight of that flood of sad people seems to also wear down the moods of generally happy people. When you say there is definitely something wrong with this world, I usually don't really hear you. I acknowledge it as the truth, but I don't usually see as seriously as you do. I spend so much time thinking about how little and unimportant I feel that I often forget that this world has made so many others feel the same way. They just don't usually express it as much as I do," XJ7 replied.

"Well, the adults usually know that if everyone expressed that feeling as much as they wanted, it would be very chaotic. So what they do is train their children to bottle it in as much as possible just to keep the peace as much as possible. Anger management counselors will tell their patients that if they never express their anger, if they bottle it in all the time, they might snap one day and blow up really big while a person who expresses themselves regularly has little chance of exploding so dangerously. But the problem is that there are millions and millions of people out their basically ordered and instructed to keep their problems to themselves all the time. What would happen if they all exploded at once? That, XJ7, is scarier to me than dealing with ten Suijas, probably even a hundred," Jenny clarified.

"I can see what you mean. You certainly made your concern very clear. I could only imagine what conditions have to be met to make all that happen though. Whatever they are, they would have to be quite extreme," XJ7 said.

"It would have to get to a point where no one can find stress relief for extended periods of time. Video games, cigarettes, intimacy, and other simple pleasures certainly help keep that situation from happening, but it seems these things are slowly losing their effect. These little things generally don't fill that void in people's hearts because the big problems aren't going anywhere, and those problems are getting worse. I'm not actually confident that the entire populous will just explode one day, but if it is headed there, I don't see it happening any time soon. That day I messed up my arms while I was out there at that warehouse district, man I felt like if I hadn't vented my anger like that out there, I probably would've taken it out on somebody instead. I did that with Brit, but it didn't turn out as severe as what it could've been," Jenny explained.

"Are you sure about that intimacy thing? Seems you enjoy yourself quite a lot when you're with Sheldon," XJ7 pointed out.

With a blush and a deep sigh, Jenny smiled and said "Well, of course I do. He definitely helps keep me from being depressed. The problem is that that doesn't last all day everyday. I always have to return to this life. Sometimes I wish we could just fly away somewhere and be happy, but that would be so selfish of us."

"But tell me, seriously, before you finally accepted him, did you want to be with him before that, even a little?" XJ7 asked.

"Well, naturally, I had to seriously consider it before hand in order for it to get to that point at all, but I do know what you're asking me. I knew he was probably the best choice for a long time, but my stupid want to be with a guy that would also help me become popular really clouded my judgment. I kept being reminded over and over of those same questions that kept nagging me. Did I really want the guy, or did I want the popularity? Would I really have valued him that much? Would he have seen through it and began to resent me because of it? Would the guy value me or would he be more worried about what the others would think of him for being with a robot? But you know, I wonder how the nerdy guy thing became undesired by society. How did it get to that point? I wonder why girls flock towards the Don Prima type first and the guys flock towards the magazine cover type of girl first. Of course I know why. We're not really thinking with our brains. We're thinking with our libidos, and for us robots, the human equivalent. We seem to be under the impression that this image of perfection also acts that way. Knowing what I know now, that Don Prima type is usually a real jerk because of their swollen egos. Girls are like that too. I can say this though. I don't feel like the time I spent with Sheldon has been a waste at all," Jenny explained.

"I'm glad it seems to be working out pretty well for you two," XJ7 said.

"Thanks. But you know, I remember telling Sheldon that as mean and nasty as I was to him in the past, if he was to think I didn't deserve his love for me; that I would understand. It's amazing really, to think that even God is willing to forgive someone for being worse than I used to be. I felt so happy when Sheldon forgave me," Jenny explained with a smile.

"You really do believe God is the real deal then?" XJ7 asked.

"Well, yes. I wasn't just putting on a show for William. I've been pretty much convinced of this since way before all those ghosts showed up. Scientist seem to think it's amazing for all this to have happened on its own, but the problem is that it's too outrageous. That's like saying all the things they said about Alexander The Great are actually true. That's like saying that painting of Napoleon riding on that horse is an accurate description. Everybody knows the real guy wasn't that tall and powerful looking. That's like saying those posters on Cluster prime describing me as this fearsome monster…better yet, that's like saying all those statements about himself Killgore used to boast about are true. Even I was convinced that Armagedroid was all powerful for a moment. The point is that this world is too amazingly complex for it to have come about on its own. That's like a ghost story. Ghosts might be real now, but they don't seem so unbelievable anymore. My perception of ghosts was much grander than they actually turned out to be. After reading as much of the bible as I have, I'm getting this impression from it. As fragile as this world is, I personally feel like it's a real miracle that it's all been sustained as long as it has. I feel like there has to be something out there that is just that amazing. There has to be at least on truly perfect thing existing somewhere that holds this fragile world together. That something is a someone. That perfect someone is God. If it is really a miracle for this world to be here in the first place, then I believe it is probably an even bigger miracle for it to have lasted as long as it has without simply crumbling apart. Even you, XJ7, do you sometimes feel like it's indeed a miracle for you to be able to find happiness despite all the terrible things that take place in your life?" Jenny asked.

XJ7 raised her voice just a little replying "Even I wonder how I can be happy sometimes. When I look around me, I don't see a good world. I see a terrible one. But life goes on anyway. It doesn't just crumble away. In the old days, I didn't honestly think it was possible for me to see a better life. I really thought I was worthless. I didn't just crumble away though. I'm still here, and if I didn't know any better, I'm actually pretty happy. To me, becoming as happy as I am now seemed totally out of reach, but here I am. I will tell you that this feels like a miracle. I'm sorry, but I have to call it as I see it."

"And that's how I see it. I remember when I was about to commit suicide, I had chosen to completely ignore God altogether. Afterwards, I became desperate. I kept looking for something somewhere to give me a reason to keep going. If people around me can find that thing that keeps them going, then I ought to be able to as well. Every time I found something or someone, those things gave me hope, but they never totally filled that void. I love Sheldon and everything, but he can't sustain me indefinitely. It's not like Sheldon's the one that gave me life. I don't really know my place or anything, but if it weren't for him creating this universe in the first place, how would I be here now? How would you even be here? I feel like I must at least acknowledge and thank him for those things. I've had a difficult life, but I have experienced happiness as well. So if you realize that the only way to have ever experienced happiness is for him to have made it possible at all, why wouldn't we thank him for it?" Jenny asked.

XJ7 bit down a little bit on the outside of her left index finger near the knuckle, and then said through her teeth in tone that revealed to Jenny that she was definitely taking her words seriously "Jenny…you're laying a bigger load on me than you think. Umm…if you…if you don't mind, I need to go think."

As she rolled away ready to leave the room, she continued "I didn't mean to offend you if it came across that way. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I just…I'll see you later."

As XJ7 closed the door behind herself, Jenny smiled at her sister thinking that she might just have told her what she needed to hear.


	23. Chapter 23

Two days later, in a small office with plenty of monitors covering most of the walls, a man and a woman sat there talking about random things.

The woman asked with a pretty strong blush on her face "So he just came at you that confidently?"

Also with a blush, he answered "Yeah, he did, Mary, but I'm not blushing right now because of him. It's the way you're reacting to it."

Mary couldn't help but laugh a little, and then she said "Getting hit on by a gay man must be getting to you. No wonder you came into work this morning with that look on your face."

"If you ever get hit on by a gay woman, you'll then get just how disturbing that crap is," He responded.

"That's just the thing. I've been hit on by at least twenty of them before," Mary responded.

"Really?" He asked surprised.

"Come on, Tyrone, you should know me pretty well by now. Why do you think I wasn't so surprised to hear that it happened to you? Such things aren't new to me. I know what you wanna ask, and no, I'm not like that. I just have that look that attracts lesbians for some inexplicable reason," Mary explained.

Tyrone laughed a little, and then said "I didn't think about it quite like that. You just have that look. Isn't that some crazy shit?"

"It is crazy, but true. Anyway, I did want to ask what you thought of that dessert I sent you the other day," Mary said.

"You added just the right amount of cherries to that pie too. It was pretty amazing," Tyrone replied.

"I'm glad you liked it. It took me a while to get the recipe right," Mary said with a sense of accomplishment.

"I guess that means you don't have to work so hard on it anymore, now that you already know what to do," Tyrone confirmed.

A moment later, Mary looked at Tyrone and asked "The way you're looking at those screens, I've never once…actually…do you…do you get bored with this at all?"

"Not really. Most people complain when they have this duty for a long period of time, and I get why, but like…I just find a way to entertain myself with my own thoughts if I need to whenever I do this alone. Naturally, I do get a little bit bored from time to time, but I don't like the feeling of being frustrated, so I try to calm myself down. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it," Tyrone replied.

"You are a patient guy. I think you'd be good with kids," Mary commented.

"I don't have to worry about feeding and raising this security system. Taking care of kids is much more frustrating I imagine," Tyrone added.

"But you are responsible for the people working here. Under your watch, there's never been a person to ever breach our defenses successfully. You always managed to alert everyone capable of handling this sort of thing in good timing," Mary complimented.

"Maybe you're right. If you wanna think of soldiers and the other personnel here as being my children, or if you wanna think of me as a baby sitter, then maybe I am okay at it. Today though, my record probably won't look so good," Tyrone said and sighed followed by reaching for the intercom button.

Suddenly, Mary just caught on to what he was saying and asked nervously, "But when did…?"

With one hand he covered her mouth suddenly cutting her off, and when he pressed the button with his other hand, he spoke into the intercom saying in a serious tone "Everyone, this is definitely not a drill. There is an intruder somewhere in or near block G. I didn't see a sign of it at first, but there is somebody there. Rooms 1 through 22 are completely empty of personnel meaning somebody could possibly have killed all of them. Whoever this is knows what he's doing. I know this sounds like craziness, but it's true. What should we do, General?"

The man he was talking to replied "It does sound crazy, but you have the sharpest eyes, so I don't doubt you. Sound the alarm. Code Red right now. Intercept whoever this is."

As soon as the alarm sounded, all soldiers sprang into action. Tyrone and Mary were not soldiers themselves, so they already knew their job was to remain where they were.

Mary removed his hand and then said nervously "How did you manage to notice that? But you're right though. Those rooms are supposed to be crowded right now."

Tyrone didn't respond. Pretty soon, they saw people all over the camera feeds scrambling. A large group of soldiers eventually converged onto one spot. They pointed there weapons at a target that couldn't be seen on any of the monitors. A soldier told the intruder to surrender, and as soon as they started firing, Mary and Tyrone both noticed signs of the enemy firing back. Soon, they saw the enemy come into view walking casually.

"That's that Suija guy," Mary said much more nervously.

Suija was firing tiny water bullets from his fingers slowly mowing down everyone in his way. He simply took his time confident that none of them could come close to beating him. About fourteen minutes later, every soldier in the base had been wiped out. Suija continued walking at a strolling pace with no sign that he was in a rush. Along the way, he would kneel down picking up every key card he could find off of the dead.

Both of them staring at the screen in shock, Tyrone eventually said "To make it worse, he knew how to cut us off from the world. He severed every line of communication here besides the intercom system. That's why he's not rushing. No one's coming to our rescue. He doesn't seem to be hunting people down anymore, he's just walking around. I would like to know what he's looking for, but I'm not going out there to ask him."

Mary rolled her chair next to him, grabbed the left shoulder of his jacket tight, and buried her face into it. She was shaking so badly from fear that she didn't know what else to do for the moment. A moment later, he stood up with her and hugged her tight. Her fear made him more afraid by the second. They didn't see much need to continue looking at the screens for the time being.

* * *

On Suija's end, he finally reached a very large door after needing to use eleven cards, but to his disappointment, he didn't have the card needed for this door in his possession. Suddenly, a person who was not a soldier made his way to the far end of the hallway and fired a laser round at Suija. He opened a hole in his own body and the laser passed through and fizzled out on the door. When the hole closed, he turned his head and body just far enough to get a clear view of the man holding the rifle. He stared at the shaking man for a moment.

He eventually spoke and intentionally echoed his voice so the man could hear him clearly saying "You're about a hundred and twenty two meters away from me. If you come any closer to me than one hundred meters, you will die. I'm sure you're not looking forward to meeting the fate of the others. Tell me, do you know what's on the other side of this door? I can hear you quite clearly from here, so speak up."

The man responded saying "I'm not authorized to know that information. Are you trying to tell me you don't know what you're looking for yourself?"

"Of course I know. I just wanted to make sure I was in the right location. If your leaders keep this knowledge secret from you, then I'm probably where I want to be. And this door…it's a sturdy one. That laser had no noticeable effect. You're probably not even authorized to know where to find the key to this door either, are you?" Suija asked.

"They don't let us know these things. I have no real clue," The man replied.

"That is just fine then. I don't need it anyway. I would've liked to make this easier, but that's impossible as of now," Suija said as he turned to face the door.

A few seconds later, he said "Oh; and you would be wise to clear this base. I'm giving you this chance to run and hide. I don't want to see you when I come back through here."

Directing his attention on the door only now, he focused his energy until what looked like tiny sparkles filled the room. They suddenly dispersed when he punched the door. The force of the blow was felt all the way to where the man was running away from. He felt a light rumble under his feet.

When the dust cloud cleared, Suija slowly walked into the large room. He noticed all kinds of elaborate machines and other contraptions all over the room. The height of the room stretched for about half a mile, but since the entire base was underground, the outside world wouldn't guess all this was there.

He then said "Such things would've made war a much more exciting spectacle in the old days. But as far as I am concerned, these things are both useless to me, and they also need to be disposed of. They could prove to be quite the nuisance later."

As he searched for the thing he was looking for, he took his time destroying the machines as much as possible.

* * *

The remaining personnel were ready to exit the main doorway. They ended up freezing in place as they saw Suija approaching from behind. He gave no signs of hostility as he continued his casual walking. It almost seemed as though he didn't know they were there.

He stopped in place when he reached the edge of the doorway, and a few seconds later, he said "You people were kind enough to leave this door open for me, and that's why I'm allowing you to live for now."

Tyrone spoke up asking "So, did you manage to actually find what you were looking for?"

The others looked at him like he was crazy for taking such a risk by talking to Suija, but they said nothing.

Suija turned and faced the small crowd, and then replied "I happen to despise frightened sheep like the rest of you. If I decided to kill you all now, I would probably spare the confident one. And I know why you asked, mister. You want to know what the item is so you can inform your superiors. You can't fool me."

He slowly dug his left hand deep into his stomach and slowly pulled an odd looking round sphere out of his body. It was roughly the same size as a basketball and the sunlight revealed that it was made of a reflective substance like glass. Its features were a little difficult to make out since the light from outside was casting a shadow in the direction of the crowd.

He then continued "But your plan doesn't matter. I want you to tell them what I took from them. It won't do them any good to know either way. They do not have a suitable strategy to defend themselves against what I have in store."

He put it back inside of his body, and then took off into the air flying away.

They let out a sigh of relief, and then Mary said "You did the right thing, Tyrone. At least we know roughly what he took. Somebody high up knows what it is. I'm assuming it's dangerous. We need to let someone know soon."

One of the others dropped to his knees and yelled out "Oh, thank you, God. I know I don't pray to you much, but thank you for saving us. Thank you."

They could hear the obvious distress in his voice, so they knew he was serious. They suddenly became frightened once again, but this time, it was much more intense. Enja suddenly landed at the entrance looking directly at them with an obviously irritated expression. They could feel the heat pouring into the room from his body.

He then made a demand in a loud harsh growl. These were words none of them knew how to translate, but they were few, so it wasn't too difficult to figure it out what he was saying. They all pointed to the east. He was slightly surprised that none of them challenged him to a fight though he saw that they had weapons. He figured that he was losing time anyway, so he just grinned and took off trying to catch up to Suija.

The same man thanked God again for sparing them. Over the next minute or so, because he felt he couldn't simply let it go, he scrambled to convince the others to join him in thanking God for their protection, and soon, they finally did. After that, they finally left that base.

* * *

That night, the entire Wakeman family waited for Jenny to come home while they waited at the dinner table. Melody ran into a few problems with her upgrades and needed to have them fixed, but they weren't serious problems necessarily, so the repairs didn't need to be immediate. Because of this, she also joined the Wakeman's for dinner.

When Jenny finally came in through the door of the dining room, she said in a somewhat cheery tone, "Hi everybody."

As soon as everyone gave their response and greeting, Melody noticed Jenny was holding something in her hands.

She then asked "Did you like…just get that money recently? I'm just curious because you're counting it like you don't already know how much you have?"

As Jenny took her seat at the table, she replied while placing the wad inside her chest compartment "I just earned this right before coming home…which is, you know, why I'm a little late."

"Last time I checked, you don't have a job," Melody pointed out just before taking a bit of some spinach.

"And while we're at it, last time I checked, robots don't eat human food," Jenny also pointed out.

Ms. Wakeman spoke up saying "That would be Dr. Locus's doing. Originally, she only drank oil and other fluids like you girls do, but he decided he wanted to surpass me so much that he actually invented the first robotic digestive system to process many of the foods that we eat. What makes it truly efficient is that it processes more things than can be done in a human stomach so there's no waste. All of the energy is used. There is one exception though. The few things that don't process correctly are incinerated and that energy is stored. It's so amazingly well made that I couldn't think of any ways of improving it at all. And while we're at it, he not only invented that, but Melody produced new blueprints after the original was destroyed. She then patented them since her father never did. She built a few of them to save a few humans who actually needed a replacement for their systems. But as of now, not only is Melody the first, but she still remains as the only robot with that type. It's just another one of those things that makes her unique."

"I'm just glad I don't suffer from gag reflex or your graphic explanation might make me not wanna eat the rest of this," Melody commented.

"Sorry about that," Ms. Wakeman apologized.

"If you really wanna know Melody, I ran some errands and delivered a few packages for someone. Let me guess, you thought I only fought villains and stopped natural disasters and such? That was mostly true in the old days, but I learned that maybe I should follow Misty's example in the way of trying to earn some money for myself sometimes. Besides, if mom actually charged me for all these repairs and upgrades, I wouldn't be able to pay her back for years. But even though she's still not doing that, I am giving her a portion of this money in return for all she's done for me. To make it even better, XJ's 2-8 also do these odd jobs for people sometimes too. The money we all give to mom makes things easier on her," Jenny explained.

"Sounds like a good plan to me. I do those kinds of things every now and then myself, but since my dad left me his money, I don't have to worry about it all too much. Granted, I'm not exactly wealthy or anything, but he did leave me with enough to last a while. On the note of your mother charging me, if I had to pay her, my inheritance wouldn't last long. Most of that money comes from Uncle Sam for my services," Melody added.

"Yeah, all that rebuilding we help out with should make up for a lot of what our government spends on us. If you add up the amount of money we would've earned if we had been paid for all of that work, we would've easily paid off all of XJ's 1-8's repairs and upgrades and about a tenth of Jenny's. Now obviously…Jenny's bill is many times higher than all of ours," XJ5 explained.

"And that expense is minus the paint jobs. We can't forget that, quite frankly, this paint is actually just an accessory. It's not a necessity, but it does make us look cuter," XJ6 said.

"And you think that's expensive. Imagine how much it costs to implant all of these individual artificial hairs into my scalp," Melody added.

Ms. Wakeman grinned and said "I remember that costume I made for Jenny to make her look more human. Frustrating isn't even the word for how much patience was required to put in all those hairs. I remembered thinking to myself that it would be so much easier if I just left her bald. I also remember thinking of how Jenny would've reacted if I had. I thought it was funny for some reason."

I bet you would've laughed if I came home steamed and embarrassed too. I was impulsive and ran off with that thing so fast that I didn't have time to notice mom trying to tell me that it wasn't finished anyway. I didn't get humiliated for being bald, but since it looked like a little girl made a doll out of a potato sack, the humiliation was much worse. You tried to save me from that, and that's good. But on that note, it's interesting how a little paint on my head makes it look like I have hair. Hey, as long as it works," Jenny said.

"I get it now. She thought it was funny because she kind of expected you might run off with it like you did anyway. Seems like it was a mistake for her to give you the benefit of the doubt after she added the hair," Melody said with bit of a grin of her own.

"It's nice to see you smile for the first time in a while," XJ7.

"Yeah, lately it hasn't been my style," Melody clarified.

A few of them laughed, including Melody, while the others groaned because they thought the rhyming was a little corny.

Smiling, Ms. Wakeman said "I used to know a guy back in college who used to do that for long periods of time. Though he developed ways to continue the rhymes in clever and non corny ways like no one else, he would sometimes continue long after it started becoming corny on purpose. It was interesting because we would look forward to the first part, but would dread knowing the corny part was coming up at any time. I wonder what happened to him. Oh well."

"You sound like you probably liked the guy," XJ8 pointed out.

"I did like him a little bit, but not that much. Nowadays, he's just another face in my memories," Ms. Wakeman replied.

"As annoying as that guy seems, he reminds me of how I usually felt about Jason before everything became so serious. Now, I'm not saying I kind of liked him like mom just said about that other guy," Jenny commented.

"And I was just about to catch you on that one too," XJ4 said with a grin.

"Wouldn't that be rich? Jenny and Jason: a prime example of a love hate relationship," Melody commented.

"I would have to teach him the meaning of the saying 'love hurts." Jenny added as she grinned and punched her fists together.

"A good way to emphasize your true feelings towards the guy. Besides that one thing, he couldn't have been that hard to deal with," XJ4 said.

"And these feelings didn't come from that one thing. It's like he found that one thing that seemed to be universally annoying to everybody. I can't really speak for everyone, but mostly everyone gave him that angry look every time he made his presence known," Jenny explained.

"Hey, XJ4, are you trying to say you're jealous of Grace?" XJ6 asked.

XJ4 raised the index finger of one of her arms high into the air, closed her eyes, smiled, and said confidently without waver "Nice try, XJ6. I was only vaguely giving you guys a strictly hypothetical scenario. I know you're still waiting for that one day when I blush. That'll be the day you get to milk that cow for all it's worth, but that day will have to wait. Jason is not the guy for me."

XJ6 slammed her right fist on the table and said in a way that made her sound like a villain from a cartoon "Blast! Foiled again."

This made every else laugh all in unison.

When the laughter finally died down, Melody said "I haven't a laugh that good in a while. Speaking of this kind of thing, I once heard about something I didn't really believe, but I think now is a pretty good time to ask. It's about XJ3…"

She was cut off by everyone else's reaction.

"If you heard that XJ3 once had a crush on Killgore, that's not exactly true. What happened is that she made a joke about it while we were fighting him. She did it to distract him long enough for one of us to sneak past him to deactivate a device. He was quite embarrassed to say the least. About a couple of days later, the rumors spread around that XJ3 had made a pass at him. XJ3 couldn't clear her own name, but Killgore put a video out on the internet that cleared them both. The amount of anger he showed towards the fact that such rumors were even spread involving him in this kind of issue managed to convince nearly everybody that it was just a joke. At the time, she didn't seem to think people paid that much attention to her, and that led her to believe that such a thing would get blown way out of proportions like that. She kind of forgot that she was also a celebrity even though I was usually the talk of the town. That also let the rest of my sisters know to be careful. Celebrities are gossip magnets. It just kinda comes with the territory," Jenny clarified.

"So I guess if he managed to clear her, then that ought to make them both seem innocent. Killgore is certainly not stupid. He wanted to squash that issue as quick as possible. If anything, the joke used against him as a distraction and as a scandal is a double whammy. I think he couldn't take that kind of blow so he felt forced to come up with a way out of that quickly," Melody said.

A moment later, Melody grinned slightly, then asked "All right then, XJ3, now that Killgore has grown so big and strong, what do you think of him now?"

Everyone waited to hear her answer, and a few seconds later, XJ3 answered in a loud beeping Morse Code "I don't exactly like him, but I can stand to hold a conversation with him at least. He's not the screaming psycho he used to be. That incident just didn't leave that kind of lasting impression on me."

"And I bet Killgore never brought it up again either, did he?" Melody asked.

"Like that would ever happen. Anyway, I've been meaning to ask you, mom; did you get any word for when Captain Phoenix is supposed to call us? I'd be willing to bet Vega is still looking for him or he's just not answering the phone," XJ5 said.

"I did get a call earlier today. I was told that Vega managed to tell him what's going on here, but apparently the Captain is still busy. Even if he does call, we already know what our situation is. I suppose we could request his help if anything. As strong as he seems to be, he'd likely be a great asset. And since he's a pirate, I'm sure he'd want payment which our world governments would have to provide. Speaking of bets, XJ5, I'd be willing to bet he'll have some reason to stay out of this ordeal. Demons and ghosts suddenly becoming real is enough to scare most anybody away," Ms. Wakeman replied.

"It's times like this that make me wonder if some robots can sneeze. They say that sometimes you sneeze suddenly when someone is talking about you. Imagine if what we're saying reaches that pirate all the way out to wherever he is. I kind find that idea to be humorous," Jenny commented.

That comment made most of the others stop what they were doing and ponder that possibility.

Jenny laughed a little and said "I had a feeling what I said what have that effect on you guys."


	24. Chapter 24

At around 8:30am the next morning, all the XJs crowded in one room to do some of that mental training Miyabi suggested. They practiced for over thirty minutes before they finally stopped and opened their eyes. Every one of them had a very frustrated look on their faces.

In an obviously frustrated tone, XJ6 said "I can hardly even touch the guy. I ran about a thousand fight scenarios through my mind and he still hands my ass to me every time. And all of us are using our enhancers. By the way you girls are looking at me, you have the same problem."

Everyone else gave their opinions besides Jenny who just stared straight down at her knees. It took them all a moment to realize Jenny wasn't giving her opinion. They didn't say anything to her. They just waited for her.

She finally looked up at them with a kind of false smile and said "For the first time in a while, I actually kind of feel embarrassed about not being able to beat somebody in a fight. For our sakes, I'm hoping we're overestimating him. But as far as I can tell, were not. I have a suggestion…well two actually. One thing we're gonna have to do is stop trying to beat him alone. We need to follow Axl's and Sigma's examples. We need to work as a team."

She immediately pressed a button on the computer next to her letting their mother know she can finally come in. Ms. Wakeman agreed to give them privacy and time to concentrate with each other.

When Ms. Wakeman finally walked in, she looked at their faces and asked "It didn't go so well, did it?"

"Not at all," XJ8 answered.

"I guess this should've been expected. Well, XJ9, you look like you have a suggestion, so let's hear it," Ms. Wakeman said.

"I told my sisters the idea for the first suggestion, but I'll finally get to the application of it. We're not mentally stable enough to directly connect our minds together as long as we need to train for without putting ourselves in danger of possible overload, deletion, irreversible merger for staying connected too long, or just scrambling our data. We need to be able to all use the same session of the training program simultaneously. We need to directly interact with each other. It's like a bunch of different processors acting as humans do when they play multiplayer mode in a video game on the same console," Jenny explained.

"Not a bad idea. This way, you won't run the risk of wrecking your physical bodies just for the training alone. I've never actually programmed a multi-access virtual simulation program before, but it shouldn't be too difficult. If I have trouble, I can just call a friend over who works in the video game industry. He knows how to make video game software quite well. Better yet, to save time, I'll call him over before I start. So what's the other suggestion?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"My other suggestion would be for anyone actually doing this training. Girls, you're going to have to keep in mind that this kind of work I do involves more than just fighting the bad guy. This program is going to need to have people running around in the streets like innocent bystanders that we need to also try to protect while fighting him. Look, I know it's hard enough to worry about Suija. I know. If we do defeat him in real life but kill everybody else in the area by accident, the world will be safe, but afterwards, the people will wonder why we weren't more careful. It might seem like they're being foolish, but that's just they way they are. That police chief guy told me that they get questioned as to why people get killed why they're on the job all the time, so they'll ask even more questions if we let them get killed because we're supposed to be superheroes as they see it, so to them it matters little how hard we have to struggle to beat Suija or Enja. They didn't say much to you girls when Smytus and Krackus attacked because the scale of that event was way bigger than this. I doubt he'd use hostages, but you girls need training dealing with type of thing too. In fact, I need more training in these areas myself. To say that this is the real deal is a light way of putting it. What would be even better is if we can train with everybody else too. Hey mom, this is just a thought, but do you know what's going on with Kenny nowadays?" Jenny asked.

"Oh, you mean YK9. That bothers me sometimes because I would've thought…actually, I won't be surprised at all if Mogg is still trying to find ways to improve Kenny to surpass you. He obviously knows all about your strength enhancers and is no doubt trying to duplicate that technology himself. For all we know, and because we haven't spoken to each other in awhile, he's already done that," Ms. Wakeman said in a tone that was most irritated and only a very little surprised.

"I kinda already figured you say that. I want to ask for his help, but the problem lies with asking Mogg. It's one thing to volunteer to put your own life on the line, but how does Mogg feel about sending Kenny to do that? You may view us as your daughters, mom, but does he view Kenny as his son? Even if he doesn't, if I ask Mogg for assistance, I will need to let him know that I took the thought of him losing his son into consideration before hand. And, well, I'm only asking out of desperation," Jenny explained.

"I see you gave that a lot of thought," XJ6 said.

"I may have actually only just came up with this on the spot, to be more precise, but all the stuff about Mogg's relationship with his son has crossed my mind several times in the past. I avoided asking for his help for that reason all this time, but as I just said, I'm kinda desperate," Jenny clarified.

"Suija is really that bad-ass then. I know that's a term I don't use much, but I think it's more or less accurate in this case, wouldn't you say?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Oh yeah, I would have to agree with you there, mom," XJ5 answered.

"This guy is no joke. In these simulations, I remember dodging so fast I could not even see my surroundings clearly, but I am not experienced enough to follow up with another equally skillful dodge so quickly. While he is putting out barely any effort to swing his arms, I am putting everything I have into just one dodge. I would have to learn how to plan ahead a bunch of moves like chess players do just to keep up," XJ8 explained.

"I'll keep all these things in mind when programming this new software. What are you looking at anyway, Jenny?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

Jenny was staring into space in the direction of a wall. She opened her mouth ready to speak and held that position for a moment.

While still staring in that direction, she finally started speaking saying "XJ8, you just mentioned chess. This whole time, I've been wondering about how we're going to add more pieces to our side of the board, but since yesterday, I've been getting this weird feeling…like Suija might just be trying to do the same thing…or something…not really sure, but that's the feeling I'm getting. I know he knows he's bad-ass like mom just said, and I'm sure he knows we know that too, but we also have to remember that he knows he's only a one man team. It's possible he's worried about that fact especially since he doesn't know everything about us yet. We'd also be foolish to believe he doesn't think we're still planning on trying to fight him again. Look at how easily he tore me apart, but he hasn't come after the rest of us to finish the job yet. He's had plenty of time to do that. We know he does his research seeing as how we saw him reading that book when we first saw him in that library and that he told Zero that he saw us all standing together in a poster. By now, he probably knows all the public knowledge there is to know about us. And if he does, but has yet to come after us, that seems to tell me that he's being careful, but we still shouldn't underestimate him."

She finally stopped staring at the wall and looked directly at XJ8, and then asked "Since you're usually a very rational course of action type of thinker, what do you think about that?"

"I see nothing wrong with your analysis, but I do want to know you ended up in that line of thinking in the first place. I am asking because you said you had a feeling since yesterday. When and how did you get this feeling?" XJ8 asked.

"How I got the feeling is the hard part, but when was sometime in the middle of the day…sometime after 1:30 maybe. It was weird. I was getting this unexplainable sickening feeling like somebody died or something. The more I focused on the feeling, the more all the stuff I said about Suija a minute ago kept racing through my mind. Since those thoughts of Suija seemed to keep feeding that feeling, I related the two as if they are directly connected," Jenny explained.

XJ8 spoke up saying "Remember the time of the world-wide blackout? I said I sensed a bitter heaviness in the air. I remember feeling something similar yesterday too. It was some time after 1:30 as you said. Did you also feel this too, XJ4?"

With a somewhat surprised tone, XJ4 replied "I know why you're asking. You remember that I also sensed that heaviness you were talking about back then. I feel like I probably did sense it yesterday too, but ah…it's really hard to say because I was really frustrated around that time because of that big mess I was rushing to clean up so I didn't really pay that feeling much mind. But it's as you two said, it was sometime after 1:30."

"The problem is that we didn't get a big blackout right after that feeling. That sounds okay and everything, but I'm mostly afraid that the longer this big event is supposed to take to actually happen, the worse it'll be," Jenny added.

"That does sound bad. But the question still remains. Did you also feel that feeling back when the blackout happened, Jenny?" XJ7 asked.

Jenny stared at XJ7 for a moment, and then said in a noticeably quieter tone "I had to think about that for a moment. My memories of that night are slightly cloudy with all that was going on. My emotions were a complete wreck and they actually interfered with my long term memory capabilities, but only for what took place for that night. When I do think about it though, I do remember something significant. You two say you felt a bitter heaviness, well I think I felt that way all the time on the inside for months. That night I felt so bad, that whatever it was that I sensed felt calming and cheerful compared to what I was going through. That feeling was too short lived for me to have been able to analyze it."

"I remember when I first realized what you might be up to, I panicked at first, but then I thought that you were just too strong to give up like that. That's reason number two why I didn't say anything about it at first. I see now the strength I was seeing was that you're the most powerful of all of us. Emotions are much different than how much you can lift or how fast you can fly. I'm not sure I could handle what you were going through. When I try to imagine it, I might have died from the stress alone," XJ4 said.

With a somewhat cheerier tone than before, Jenny said "You might not have been in my shoes, XJ4, but I've always thought of you as being way stronger than me emotionally. I'm not gonna say you wouldn't have been stressed out, but I think you would've handled it better than I did. And XJ6, when I think back on it, you probably should've roughed me up some like you wanted to but didn't. Literally knocking some sense into me might've actually done the trick. Venting anger seems to make for a good remedy sometimes. But who knows, maybe Sheldon was the only one who could've done it anyway. It's too late to go back and experiment with that now."

With a kind of devious grin, XJ6 balled up her left fist and said "You're lookin' a little bit bummed out right now, you know. I can do some of that for you now if you want."

Jenny laughed and said "I think I'll pass."

By the time most of the XJs noticed Ms. Wakeman's surprised blush, she said "Ah, girls, I think I just realized, I've forgotten what time we live in. That friend of mine might have a face like an old man, but not only is he a video game nerd, but so is like every other guy he knows. If I invite him here, he'll see it as an opportunity to be directly involved…basically, he's a fan boy just like Sheldon. And what do you girls happen to be?"

By now, most of the XJs were blushing too.

"I get it. Mom is saying that this place is gonna be like a comic convention for the next few days. A whole bunch of Sheldons are gonna be swarming around here like bees to honey," Jenny said with a blush of her own.

"It's like that then, is it? Here we go," XJ5 said.

* * *

The word of their plan got out to everyone they planned on telling as secretly as possible. They didn't want everybody everywhere talking about it because though it's obvious that Suija knows they're planning a new offensive strategy, letting him know exactly what it is seems that it would likely provoke him into attacking sooner.

Within only a day's time, the Wakeman residence was very crowded on the inside. From the outside of the house, no one could tell anything was going on. Most of the visitors park their vehicles away from the house and walked there to avoid suspicion. The familiar faces that showed up are Vexus, X, Sheldon, and Grace. Everyone else was people none of the XJs knew.

When programming the software, Vexus and X both provided information on real world tactical information. Sheldon of course had much experience in programming knowledge. And then there was Grace who…

Jenny couldn't help but ask "So why are here, anyway?"

Once Grace was able to make sense of her question through all the noise of the large room they were in, she answered "I'm not the best…person to ask. Angel can explain it better."

"Okay," Jenny said.

Angel spoke up saying "I know you guys didn't invite us over because you don't think it's possible to link to my technology. That's perfectly understandable. Right now it is impossible. I'm learning how these kinds of computers work though, so I'm trying to adjust my own systems to be able to adapt to and utilize them. Now, I'm not going to kill myself. If I can't make that adjustment, I'll just leave. I know that there are a lot of very smart people here right now, so I'm hoping they can help guide me in the right direction."

"Okay, so you want to train with us, and I get that, but aren't you worried about giving away your personal secrets?" X asked as he walked over.

"As you guys are designing a multi-access simulator, I'm also setting aside a portion of my processor to take on the possibility and risk of the connection. You guys will be much more deeply connected than I will be. If I do run into a problem, I'll disconnect the dummy processor and reformat it if necessary. In your case, you'll feel like you're actually there. In my case, I will too, but not nearly as much. For me, it'll be more like playing a video game with a joystick. Afterwards, I'll make my own simulation program and use the saved data from the dummy to practice on my own with," Angel explained.

By now, most of the people in the room were much quieter as they were listening to her explanation.

A very enthusiastic man then asked "You shouldn't be able to do that so simply. Isn't that much easier said than done?"

Ms. Wakeman then added "I have to agree with him."

Angel sighed kind of disappointedly, but couldn't help but grin at her own apparent cleverness, and then she replied "I'm surprised at how little you people pay attention to me. I know the XJs are popular and all, but I would think my uniqueness would be getting more attention. But no, I'm not really very jealous. For you guys to be on my page, the question I need to ask, is what is one of the biggest things I'm famous for doing? When you figure that out, you might just see where I'm going with this."

A moment later, one guy guessed "You put up a decent fight with Sigma?"

"Yes, but you're not quite on the right track," Angel answered.

"Not quite means I'm close then," the same man added.

Vexus then guessed "You did absorb that Blaze Heatnix fellow."

"You're on the right track, Vexus. Now what?" Angel asked.

Another man suddenly said very excited "I know what you're saying now. The story goes that you dropped that extra weight, but that doesn't mean you dropped all of him. I think you're saying that you not only duplicated his powers, but you also duplicated his entire operating system."

"Well…not quite, but you are mostly correct. I decided not to delete his brain from my hard drive. I have plenty of unused room for space, so I figured keeping him around might help later on. I couldn't crack his technology at first though because the programming language for my data is so much different from like every other computer. By the time I did figure it out though, his personality data was too warped to repair. He was dead basically. I did a bigger number on him than I thought. I have an understanding of his overall data, so I first deleted the ruined personality data, filled in the necessary gaps, and improvised where needed and now what I have is an altered version of him stored inside of me. He's the dummy processor I was talking about. I didn't mention the fact that I kept him around because it wouldn't matter if you knew that or not anyway," Angel explained.

Sheldon spoke up saying "Well, isn't that something? That explanation of yours just made our job a little easier. Ms. Wakeman. We need to find a way to insure that if any of your daughter's information gets scrambled, that it won't be her main processor and memory banks. They need dummies of their own. X and Zero probably don't need that because their protection won't allow anything to penetrate that deep anyway, but we can try. Vexus and anyone else will need this too. I know it's not so simple to just copy Jenny's massive data storage to use as a dummy, but there needs to be something else that will take the fall in case something serious happens. I know our goal is a totally separate computer for them to access, but it's still risky all the same."

"I know who to call for this, but…we probably can't get that information out of him anyway. It's probably top secret. That's the example Silver Fox set for us. He uses physical dummies, but he still has to link up with them electronically. Somehow, he's designed to automatically disconnect at the moment the dummy is in danger. The trick is how instantaneously he can completely unload all process trees and snap himself back into reality. If I was to feel like I'm actually in that virtual world, I don't believe that my processors are fast enough to plug in and plug out instantly like that. I would likely be forced to shut down and reboot if I did that," Vexus explained.

"Heh! Talk about a tall order. We spent so much time trying to upgrade our bodies that we didn't think to ask mom to make our processors that fast. They're more than fast enough to handle what we're already able to do, and we thought that was enough. If we do this though, our processors will be way faster than our bodies can even keep up with. We'll have to also train ourselves on how to reallocate processor speed for specific tasks that don't require that much power way quicker than we've ever been able to before," XJ6 explained.

A woman then spoke up saying "But didn't you guys say you were also training to learn how to repair your bodies quicker on your own instead of always relying on your auto-functions? Your processor speed and RAM aren't that difficult to upgrade, and for this situation, we can find a way to have your systems automatically disconnect at the right time with little difficulty, but the future is a problem of its own. Who's to say that you won't end up another situation where you would have to disconnect on your own doing? I ain't tryin' to mean or nothing,' but, you girls need to gain a much better understanding or your own systems. Look at each individual function you have, and figure out what each of those things are actually capable of doing beyond what you already know. Think outside of your boxes. I'm sayin' this as a matter of life and death."

"I was about to give you one of those glares I used to give you for your tone, Mika, but you always manage to make a point that can't be ignored. I often look back at my daughters design specs to see if I overlooked anything. I've come up with some ideas for them, but sometimes I wonder can these things even be done. One, the capability of the already existing technology is questionable, and two, some of the things I've theorized about are difficult to explain to them. The explanation doesn't help if they can't actually figure out how to do it. This is me saying that I don't know how to program these functions. They would have to figure it out almost totally by themselves. Jenny, didn't Misty tell you she was trying to learn something her original teacher never taught her students?"

Jenny thought about it for a moment, and then said "Oh, you mean the day we went to get those upgrades we got recently? She said that her teacher was able to swing her hand and make something like an invisible blade come out and cut the ground. I asked her why just the ground. She was confused by my question, but then she caught on and explained that her teacher only demonstrated the technique on the ground. According to her, Misty has been trying for years but still can't figure it out. As well as she…wait, better yet…the fact that she can do that with her own mist so expertly would lead me to believe that she easily has the mental concentration necessary to pull that other move off. Some of you guys have that doubtful look, but even her boyfriend Axl said he saw her trying to practice it, so I have no reason to believe she's lying about her teacher. If I could make an invisible insta-blade come out of my hands like that, Suija probably would stand a chance. And by insta-blade, of course, I do mean that even if I was like a mile away from the guy, it would still hit him instantly. I don't think even her teacher was THAT good, but, that would be amazing if I could do that."

Sheldon had an idea, and then said "Sounds like something I should try to design into Silver Shell. I'll keep a mental note of that. It sounds next to impossible, but an attack that's undetectable even if the person is looking right at you would be…a little too amazing actually."

Another man spoke up saying "Mr. Lee's idea there, if you go about it in the right way, might be much easier to pull of that that invisible instant thing Jennifer is talking about. If the enemy was closer maybe, but to travel that far and still deliver maximum damage is very difficult to pull off I would believe."

"That's why I didn't feel so confident about it when I explained it. But Sheldon, why would go invent something like that for Silver Shell and not for me?" Jenny asked.

Sheldon quickly spoke up replying "Before this turns into needless drama, I thought it wouldn't be wise to install it into you first since you're alive. If I see that it works fine for a lifeless doll like the Shell without causing damage, then of course I'll make one for you. Or, would you rather me use you as a guinea pig first?"

Some of the people in the crowd couldn't help but laugh it this.

"Okay, okay. Maybe I did let my jealousy get the best of me. I wasn't thinking," Jenny said embarrassed.

"Which got me to thinking though. All those things I made for you before that you kinda recklessly attached to your body wasn't exactly all your fault. You recklessly attached them to your body, but I recklessly made them. The good thing is that those were simple to make devices, these new one's I'm trying to come up with in my head are much more complicated. I'm not about to be reckless about it this time," Sheldon added.

Another man spoke up saying "I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, but…"

Sheldon suddenly clarified saying "I think I know what you're trying to say. Yes, Silver Shell's core programming is now very compatible with Jenny's. That why he's the guinea pig."

"I know that, but I still over reacted without thinking. Maybe I should think about Silver Shell more often. Oh, but while we're on that subject Sheldon, did you do what I think you did?" Jenny asked.

Sheldon smiled and replied "Yes, I did. If you get busted up, and if it is still possible to do so, you can transfer over to his body. I figured that adjustment practically demanded to be made right away considering how strong Suija is. We just can't let anybody outside of this room know about this."

Ms. Wakeman looked like she was scrambling to ponder something, and then she asked "All this sounds great, but how quickly do you think the transfer can be done if it comes to that?"

"Unless you changed the actual design and connectors to her main core, she can just shut herself down after making an emergency backup of all her data, shut herself down and then you can simply take the physical core out and put inside Silver Shell. The space inside Jenny where her core is being held is the way Silver Shell is also designed, but he has two spaces. The first space holds his own core inside, and the other has a space designed specifically for Jenny which is empty at the moment. If you did change that since I last checked, then we need to make that adjustment soon. If that's not possible, then Jenny will have to be hooked up to Shell and transferred through a hard wire. That, as far as I can tell, could probably take five to ten minutes at the most. Silver Shell is designed to delete itself if the hard wire transfer method is used to make room for Jenny. That core will then be Jenny's new core, at least temporarily. In that case, Jenny will have some options. If she is still on the battle field when th…oh right, Silver Shell is also designed to locate Jenny if needed and perform the operation if needed. Now Jenny, listen closely. Remember that Silver Shell is nowhere near as strong as you are. I even went as far as to have it display a reminder in your eyes telling you this in case you're still thinking of fighting. Unless you know that you can win with Silver Shell's body, run away or hide yourself somewhere. Speaking of dummies, now that we've come this far, I think we need to make getaway cars for all your daughters, Ms. Wakeman," Sheldon explained.

"I completely understand what you're saying Sheldon. Silver Shell is not a replacement for Jenny, he's a crutch and an escape tactic. I don't need to spend a whole lot of money on a brand new body. I only need to make a machine that will either hide or run away. I will then rebuild later. Now if building a new fully functional body was next to dirt cheap, I could build a whole storage room filled with bodies to transfer to. I wish humans could also have it that easy," Ms. Wakeman said.

"That would be wonderful, but imagine that though. It's a bit creepy walking around in a room with a bunch of duplicates of myself hanging on racks," XJ4 commented.

With most of the others reactions, she could see that they agreed with her on the creepiness issue.

"I guess I could just put sheets over them or something if that day ever comes. I wouldn't want to stare at that sight too long myself," Ms. Wakeman added.

The woman Ms. Wakeman just spoke to, Mika, spoke up asking "I have been meaning to ask you one thing, Nora. I can understand your daughters finding ways to adjust to their body's weight, but they did put on some extra mass with their enhancers. How do they managed to go without breaking the chairs they sit it or put dents in the ground as they walk. I know Jenny said she used to be six hundred pounds, but with enhancer sitting inside of her body, wouldn't that create problems?"

"One of their friends named Bradley asked about that before. As you know by now, anti-gravity technology in this world and in the other is still very limited, but they all have an anti-gravity generator in their bodies. Normally, it's only strong enough to keep them from breaking chairs and things like that. It operates independently of their will on the normal setting. They can use it to fly around, but the heavier their bodies are, the more stress they put on the generators the longer they use them. That's why you usually see XJs 4 and 6-9 flying with rockets. XJs 1-3 and 5 are much lighter so they don't have nearly as much to worry about. It get's better though. To keep them from falling through weak floors, I designed their generators to also scan the area before the body even gets close to the floor so it can make the necessary adjustment. This happens without my daughters even knowing about it most of the time. They actually sometimes forget those generators are in their bodies. It's kind of like when people forget to take their glasses off of their face before going to sleep because they sort of forget they're even wearing them. On the other hand, if the floor is too weak, and the body is heading towards the floor too quickly for the generator to make the adjustment in time, the generator will give a the XJs a warning to prevent a mishap. It's good that I'm thinking about that now because we'll need to design that sort of thing into this program we're writing," Ms. Wakeman replied.

A sudden outburst came from a woman as she said "Hey, Ms. Wakeman, you told me to monitor your incoming e-mails, but I just received one on my own computer. I've been told to relay this one to you. You really gotta see this one."

"Can you read it out loud for me?" Ms. Wakeman requested.

"All right. This source is anonymous, but I don't think it's bogus. It reads 'Ms. Noreen Wakeman. It is highly unlikely that you will be officially notified of this, but you should know that two days ago the enemy calling himself Suija has broken into a weapons storage facility and not only destroyed most of the weapons he could find, but also retrieved an item that non high-ranking personell like me know anything about. I'm assuming it's some kind of ancient magical item. I wasn't able to get a good look at it, but when he showed it to us, it was a ball shaped item somewhat larger than my head. He said he wanted us to tell you about it. It's like he doesn't care if you find out. The worst is that he killed nearly every soldier in this base to get that item. I'm assuming he thinks it's important. If so, then I think it's very dangerous. He did not tell us what he planned to do with it. The only good knews is that the other one called Enja seems to be totally occupied with chasing Suija around. As it was in the news broadcast, it also seems to us that he has a grudge against Suija. That is all," The woman said.

A moment of silence filled the room from the shock of this news.

Finally, XJ4 said "So it's true then. Jenny, your theory was right. You said you thought he might be trying to add more pieces to his side of the board based on what you sensed. I think this ball thing is an extra piece."

"But hey, if this is true, aren't you guys wondering why our government hasn't told us yet?" One man asked.

"Not at all. I'm not surprised is why. First, this e-mail is anonymous, and then the place attacked is a weapons storage facility. That means it's top secret. We're not top secret. Everybody knows about us, so we're not in the same category as what's inside that facility. That's one reason they won't bother telling us. I would like to ask our government why they have such an item in their possession, but I'm almost certain they would try to play it off acting like it doesn't exist or that they know nothing about it. They wouldn't dare tell the public about that. They are all about that approval rating stuff these days, right?" XJ5 explained.

"You're starting to sound like me when I do my little speeches," Jenny commented.

"I just wanted to beat you to it for once," XJ5 said.

The man from before looked around at all the Wakemans and at Sheldon, X, Vexus, and Grace, and then he asked "So none of you are surprised by this?"

A moment of realization swept over the room and then he asked "Has it really gotten that bad? So how long have you guys suspected that our government is doing suspicious things? That is the way you all seem to be thinking right now. What's even creepier is that you don't seem worried that I might rat you guys out?"

"It's very simple, sir. We suspect them. They suspect us of suspecting them, but we don't think they can prove that. We're not stupid enough to talk about this publicly yet because we will instantly be made to seem like the bad guys to the people. That's because we have no real proof of their possible doings. If we did, we would be able to defend ourselves in such a case. On the other hand, we do know some things that will definitely get the public's attention focused on the government. They'll start asking Uncle Sam to explain himself. Not one of us has made a move yet. Neither of us has even directly acknowledged that we're suspsicious of each other either. We don't know their theories on us, and they don't know our theories on them, so we're at a standstill. If you say anything about us, we will be forced to pretend as though we don't know what you're talking about to avoid a tragedy. And if you do, the government will not let the public know that you brought this up to avoid their own tragedy. That's why we're not worried. I will let you guys know this much. I don't know how they view the general public, but I'm still sticking to my original plan. I fight for the people. I wish I knew what they stand for, but I'm not so sure it is what I thought it was anymore," Jenny explained.

The same man then said "I think I see it now. In order for you to continue fighting for the people, you have to remain quite for now. They're the one's paying for your maintanence so you have to hold your tongue. What's even stranger than all this is that the thought, of nearly all of this stuff, has crossed my mind before a few years ago but I didn't want to believe it."

"Then you thought of it nearly the same time I did. It kinda popped into my head, but the thought didn't last very long. After that, I started noticing weird things that reminded me of that thought. But then, look at what happened to Misty and me. We were called into an old abandoned building to stop some kind of kidnapping operation because the police department's hands were tied. It was only when I realized just how big of an operation is was that I got thinking 'How can all this be going on right under my nose?' I know of the mafia, but this was mostly unknown to me, the kind of thing that would fit right in with a ghost story or a disturbing movie plot. But there we were, about to be raped and possibly killed and locked away somewhere because they had these damned contraptions designed to kill us instantly if we moved. It wasn't the crimes against those kids that surprised me; it was the size and effectiveness of the operation. And guess what; we have two key players right here in this room. Grace, you were the one that found us because of your new found senses. You said so yourself when you walked in through the door of the room we were held in. Not only that, but Angel was also the one that mentioned secret societies even though she doesn't have real information on them. I'm not sure of the scale she was talking about, but this operation is something I would class as a secret society of sorts. But isn't our government supposed to be filled with top class investigators and all that? I'm going out on a limb here to say that I would not be surprised in the least if our government knows all about that operation in particular and is just not saying anything about it. It's much simpler than you think for them to cover that up. We get most of our news from the TV, and all they have to do is avoid talking about them and ordinary citizens will never suspect a thing. You can talk about crimes all day, but if you never know the names and/or faces of the criminals or victims, mentioning the crime doesn't matter," Jenny explained.

The same man had a shocked expression on his face, and then said "Oh man. I didn't think about it in that much detail. And I see why you're frustrated. Look at what happened to you and Misty. You can't say anything about it because of a lack of proof. If you do that now, people will think you've gone crazy. I see you certainly believe your own words seeing as how you were also a victim of the same crimes those children go through. This…is so fucked up. I can certainly see now why you usually don't seem happy anymore. I thought it was mostly because of your peers back in high school, that suicide attempt, and all this war. If you add in our government, uninformed and indifferent society, all the things that go on behind our backs, and the fact that your hands are tied, you're mad at just about everything. Now we got demons and ghosts running around. How much worse can things get?"

Jenny crossed here arms, leaned back in her chair, and then replied "That, my quick to catch on man, is why we called you guys here. Suija is not our only problem as you can now see. I know you guys are video game and programming experts, but this game we're playing is one you're actually a part of now. Think of it as the ultimate boss battle and you're doing everything you can to win not because you want bragging rights but because you practically have a guy standing behind you with a gun to your heads saying you you'd better win or you'll die in real life, and you know there's no extra lives or continues. I don't mean this in an insulting way, like I'm assuming you guys are taking this lightly as if you're stuck in a fantasy world, but I say it that way because this situation is desperate. I might not be panicking right now, but I am one of the one's that actually has to fight those things, so I'm scared and I'm pleading with you guys to please do the best job you can. My family and friends lives are on the line too."

X then commented "I don't think I could've said that any better."

"I was considering saying something about your suspicions to them, but I won't. Now that you brought those things to my attention, they're starting to seem more suspicious than you guys. I don't know all the details and I'm sure there are things you haven't bothered to mention yet, but I somehow don't think now is a good time for me to hear them. I'm afraid to know and time is short anyway. Besides, you guys have proven yourselves to be more reliable than our government lately anyway, and now there seems to be an actual reason for that that's slowly being revealed to me. To keep myself from dragging this on for too long, I'll go ahead and end this by saying that I'll help you in any way I can. I don't think I can ignore a plea like that from someone who's risked thier life for us as much as you have, Jenny," The same man said.

The others in the room agreed with him and they finally returned to the task at hand.

* * *

As the program was being written, Enja was standing near a lake staring out into the middle of it. It was the middle of the afternoon. Someone was keeping a watchful eye on him from a distance.

This person was a trained sniper. He'd been watching Enja for nearly twenty minutes making sure all his preperations were complete. This man was not military by the way. He was a hitman. He felt as though he was ready, so he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He finally pulled the trigger.

The very loud noise from the gun was followed by another loud noise. Enja was holding the bullet in his left hand. Slowly, he pulled the bullet out and immediately charged in the direction of the gun fire. He found the gun, but the attacker was nowhwere to be seen. Frustrated, he continued looking around figuring the attacker couldn't have gotten far.

The man actually never moved from his spot, and that's because…

"_Yes, monster, you only found a gun. The gun I'm using is designed only for controlling the real one. As long as I remain still until you give up and leave, I'll be fine. What's ewven better is I'm much farther away from you than you think_," He thought to himself as he watched the frantic movements of the demon.

Enja looked around until he finally got the point of all this, especially sense the gun was visibly also electronic. He stopped what he was doing, calmed down, and then let out a loud laugh.

The expression on Enja's face made the man think "_Yeah fucker, you're impressed, aren't you_? _That's why that gun had no silencer. It's to keep your attention over there."_

Enja shot straight up into the air like a bullet and stopped at a high enough altitude to get a complete arial view of the area. He realized that humans have improved their camouflaging abilities sense a couple of hundred years ago after not being able to spot even a slight trace of him. He then thought to himself that maybe this is what he gets for spending too much time away from chasing his enemy. Spending even more time searching for an ordinary man seemed like a waste of time to him. The moment he gave up and tunred to start flying, another shot came up from the same gun. This time, Enja fired a heat blast from his hands plowing right through the bullet and destroying the gun on the ground.

While he was occupied with eliminating that gun, another gun fired from a different direction surprising Enja. He dodged that bullet, and suddenly had to dodge another from another direction. Being quite annoyed at this point, he took off flying away. He didn't honestly believe he'd be defeated by those guns, but he didn't want to take the time healing the wounds either. As he flew away, he thought about the one's Suija was fighting against earlier: the mechanical people. He realized it was highly likely they also possessed weapons such as these.

The man hiding finally contacted his client through a communicator and asked "Can you hear me?"

"By your tone, I'm assuming he's out of even your league," The male voice on the other end sounded.

"It's definitely worse than I thought. His strength and reaction time are better than I anticipated," The man explained.

"So you're saying he blocked or possibly caught the first bullet, and I'm guessing he destroyed the gun the second attempt, and then he dodged the next two and flew away? It's what I would've done if I had powers like that," The male voice sounded.

"I already told you what my attack pattern was going to be, so I see you how you figured out what he did so easily. You've had time to think about it. If it is those 'superheroes' that fight them end the end, I hope they actually win. Our work is already hard enough without demons running amuck," The man commented.

"All right, look. Just get your supplies and return to the base. We'll try again later if we get the opportunity," The male voice commanded.

"Right!" The man said before turning off his communicator.


	25. Chapter 25

About two and a half days later, the program was mostly completed, but they all kept in mind possible bugs or improvements that might need to be made just in case. During their first training exercise, they all chose an unpopulated city area to test how capable this program actually is.

As they moved around together as a group, XJ6 commented "It feels pretty real, but there is certainly something different about this world. It's like being totally conscious of…no…it's more like this is the real world, but the actual real world is the daydream. That's the feeling I get from this place."

Zero, who was now with them, said "I just hope we don't get these worlds confused when we return. Here's a way to test the realness of this place. I'll start with these rocks."

He picked up a hanful of them and threw them through a window into a building. The moment the glass shattered, everyone was paying close attention to the movement of everything. Everything seemed realistic right until one of the rocks suddenly disappeared out of sight and a few of them were shining just as brightly as they were as if they were still outside of the building even though most of them now had shadows cast on them as they're supposed to. An error message box appeared above the rocks describing certain issues regarding this.

They all heard Ms. Wakeman's voice say "That's no good. We need to make this more accurate than that. Speaking of which, Zero, draw your sword and move the blade near someone next to you but not too close. I want to see how the light from your saber reflects off of their bodies."

"I suppose that is a good idea," Zero said as he activated it.

He slowly moved it next to the closest person to him which was XJ8. After observing the reflection for a few seconds, he said "There seems to be no problem with her virtual body. I'll try everyone else to make sure.

About two minutes later, a problem was found. For some reason, when he moved his saber next to XJ2, the reflection was fine, but the hilt of the saber seemed to disappear. The energy blade was still visible though. About two second after this realization, an error message appeared above XJ2 relating to this problem, but the description was vague.

Zero then said "Everyone else seems fine, but XJ2's programming seems off. You might need to make sure it isn't my programming as well."

They all heard a man's voice say "Keep your hand in the same spot. I think I already know how to fix that."

Zero and XJ2 stayed still and watched as the world around them shifted slightly and then straightened. Following that, the area around the glitch shifted rapidly until the hilt finally became visible. The error box finally disappeared. A moment later, the error box above the rocks in the building disappeared as well.

A moment later, Vexus said "Well, everything seems to be fine now. There is one thing, and I think I'm right by suspecting this. I'll investigate it."

She flew straight up and stopped about sixty five feet off the ground. She reached up and her hand stopped and she felt as though she was pushing against something that wasn't there.

"It's as I thought. There's an invisible wall here. It's probably more accurately an invisible ceiling. I noticed it when the graphics shifted as you fixed the last glitch," Vexus explained.

The same man's voice replied "There is a glitch there. I just discovered it, and it's actually registered as a floor according to this data, but I'm not sure how it got flipped upside down and located in the middle of the air. I'll have to get rid of that. Actually, hold on…I whole lot of video memory is allocated for that one floor for some reason. Getting rid of that glitch should free up quite a bit of memory."

A moment later, Vexus found her hand able to move past that point.

"I'm guessing everything regarding that is fixed now, isn't it?" She asked.

Sheldon's voice then said "That's fine, but now I'm even more worried about why that floor was even there. I'm performing a check to see if that floor is supposed to be in this stage. I wouldn't want one of you guys to fall through a floor. Keep in mind what you guys are seeing are only textures, not the surface you're touching. You might walk over something that looks like a floor but fall into a bottomless pit. All right…yes, it turns out it was supposed to be in this city you're in, but about two miles away from you guys underground at the bottom of a sewer. That's a bit of a scary and nasty thought though. Imagine Suija throwing you into the ground so hard that you go right through it and find yourself swimming around inside of a sewer. Millions of pounds of human waste washing over me would make for a really bad day."

"A bad day? That's more like a nightmare," X commented.

"Talk about making somebody aware of their own surroundings. It's like…I know that stuff is down there, but we never see it, so it's kind of not even real, but it is," XJ4 added.

"That is gross. I would rather not keep thinking about that. We should just keep moving," Jenny said.

"Oh Jenny, go ahead and try that new transformation you told me about," Ms. Wakeman said.

"You mean this one?" Jenny asked as a bunch of spikes protruded fron her neck like a cactus.

Everyone else's reaction to this revealed their apparent discomfort.

"What's the deal with that transformation?" Zero asked with a confused expression.

"Well, that's not the one I was talking about, but that is one of your new ones. I kinda already forgot about that one," Ms. Wakeman said a little emabarrased at her lack of memory.

"The point of this is that I have a thin neck. Smytus and Krackus, while they were in their combined form, held me up by my neck with one hand. The next time an enemy does that, they'll get a bunch of holes through that hand," Jenny explained.

X then said "Okay then; that sounds useful. But Jenny, your mom just said you made this up, so…?"

Jenny cut him off by saying "I told you guys before that my enhancer allows me to be able to make new versions of my old transformations or brand new ones altogether. I couldn't help but to get to thinking 'Why am I not already able to do that?' If I can change my appearance, then why can I not also change my weapons? It's way easier with my enhancer, but I have devised ways to develop my own without it. This was the first one. The one mom is referring to is the one I'm about to show you."

She retracted the spikes and then her head opened up to the right and the left. After a bunch of reconfiguring, her head had transformed into a complicated looking long-barreled cannon. The issue was that…

"Surprising, but it looks like this cannon fires from both ends, and…well, won't the shock from each blast cause stress on your brain?" Melody asked.

Jenny's voice sounded from inside her chest area saying "First, this transformation isn't finished, but as you can probably now tell, I moved my brain down into my chest."

She then stretched both arms out, and her hands transformed into the ends of a hose of some kind. She then sucked up a large rock from the ground and fired it from the rear facing barrel. The rock mostly destroyed a car in the distance.

Jenny continued saying "Second, the point of this transformation is to improvise in case I run out of my own ammo. I'm referring to my missiles…that I rarely ever use anyway…now that I think about it. Anyway; this also allows me to conserve energy, which lasers use a lot of. But if you noticed, you didn't see a big blast of flame come out of the barrel when it fired. I launched the rock about as fast as I can throw it, which is enough force for most situations anyway since I'm a lot stronger than I used to be. The barrels allow for better aiming than I can possibly pull off with my arms. And obviously, I can fire with the other end of the barrel as well. Since I can rotate this turret as well, having two barrels makes aiming faster. Here's the tricky part. I'll purposely lead the enemy into believing that I can only fire from one end of the barrel at a time for a while, and once they start thinking they're clever, I'll suddenly, and with no warning, show them that I can fire from both ends simultaneously. It's not the most powerful weapon I have, but it can be useful."

As soon as she finished her explanation, she was about to return to her normal state, when Ms. Wakeman said "Wait! Not yet, XJ9. I still need to make sure all the graphical coding is correct before decide to use it in training. That's why I had you transform in the first place. Hold that state for a little while longer."

"She knows you quite well. She knew what you were about to do without as much as a warning sign of any kind," Axl commented.

"She can read my data at any time while I'm hooked up to this simulator, but she knows how I think anyway, so there's no need for her to do that," Jenny explained.

A moment later, Ms. Wakeman announced "According to everyone on our end, all of that programming checks out."

Jenny finally returned to normal.

"How about a quick test to see how well one of you guys can handle fighting one of our old enemies you never had a chance to fight? You did say you had them program some Maverick data into this simulator, right X?" Axl asked.

"Actually, Vexus was the one who suggested it. I just gave specifics. I didn't expect to get into that so soon though," X said.

Killgore finally spoke up saying "This sounds like a good plan to me. I actually wanted to test my skills against that Vile guy or maybe that one called Commander Yammark."

Both X and Zero grinned at what Killgore just said. Killgore noticed this and wondered why.

"Commander Yammark, huh? That's not much of a challenge with your skills. However you learned about him, you must seriously be overestimating his battle specs. He hits hard, don't get me wrong, but his moves are too predictable and are pretty easy to get around. Yeah, I know, he was a commander, but that doesn't matter. He's an old reploid that was once considered very formidable a long time ago, but he just didn't upgrade much. Vile is a much greater opponent," X explained.

Sheldon's voice sounded saying "If we wanted, we could just raise his stats."

"But that wouldn't give me an accurate representation. The point of this isn't to become a better gamer, but a better fighter instead. If I were to fight him on the battlefield, I might end up a little confused," Killgore.

"I thought about what you guys are saying, but I think we're getting too sidetracked. If we don't spend practically all our time on Suija and Enja, we might not be prepared enough for real life. I don't think we have enough time for other opponents right now," Jenny warned.

"Oh, right. We do have a time limit, don't we? I guess all that fun-and-games stuff has to come later," Axl said followed by a disappointed sigh.

A beeping sound and a flashing bright circle of light appeared on the ground about fifty or so feet away from the group. A few seconds after they all started paying attention to it, in the middle of that circle, from the ground up, the image of Suija was slowly being pieced together. Ms. Wakeman didn't want any of them to freak out, so she uploaded Suija's data file slowly instead of suddenly.

When the circle of light disappeared, XJ5 commented "That is just too much. That is him down to the last detail. The only difference is that he's not wearing that calm collected grin. Come to think of it, this is the only time I've see him with a completely normal relaxed expression."

"Technically speaking, as this simulation stands, you guys can start training right now if you wish to. We just haven't added all the scared running people yet. And well, I don't really think I need to say this, but you all are aware that we only know the moves he's shown us, right?" Ms. Wakeman asked just trying to be sure.

"Even I needed to be reminded of that. I know it, but I don't think about it much," Melody said.

"Well, now that you know without a doubt, this training will be limited only in that since because we can't do anything about it regardless. We know mostly nothing about this supposed sphere that he apparently stole. Adding that to this simulation would be worthless. On the other hand, he did reveal a whole lot of very useful information. That one maneuver he used on XJ8 was incredible in the since that he would have to have amazing control over his flight ability to successfully perform it. He let us know that his speed is certainly something to be desired. Jenny wasn't able to land a single blow or get away from him. Zero's handling of his blade is nearly unparalleled, but Suija dodged it as if this sort of thing was not a surprised to him at all. Keep in mind that the artificial intelligence maybe limited in this program, but I included the idea that in real life what will probably happen is that he will fight you like he did before or maybe only a little better assuming you all couldn't possibly have upgraded as much as you did. I have to assume the worst in thinking the very next blow he will attempt will be many times stronger as if to end your lives instantly. The thing is, in video games, especially fighting games, I've been told that regardless of the difficulty setting, the basic artificial intelligence will cause your opponent to constantly try to adjust to whatever your change in strategy is. That's how this digital Suija is programmed. He will not constantly repeat himself. I said more than I probably needed to because I wanted to get you guys focused on the enemy in front of you. If you all are ready to test him now, just give me the word," Ms. Wakeman said.

"First, we need to see how well we can fight him as we are without the enhancers, but, XJ's 1-3, you girls don't have a choice but to go to full power," XJ7 said.

They did as their younger sister said and activated their enhancers. In this digital world, XJ1 can simply activate it, and her enhancer will form around her body, but in the real world, either her enhancer has to find her using its automated sytem, or she has to find it and enter it herself. It may have been improved, but it doesn't help her get around the fact that Ms. Wakeman or anybody for that matter can't condense that much mass into a tiny space smaller than her body.

"I guess we might as well give it a try. Are you guys ready?" Zero asked as he started walking away from the cramped crowd to get some elbow room.

As soon as he got a good grip on his saber's hilt, Jenny said "Nobody seems to be objecting, so…"

As soon as everyone seemed ready, Ms. Wakeman pushed the button. The digital Suija looked around at everyone in the crowd one by one gauging them as his trademarked grin appeared on his face. He also took the time out to get into his unique stance.

As soon as he looked XJ4 directly in her eyes, she suddenly made the robot equivalent of a gasp.

When everyone's attention focused on her, she said "That thing looks so much like him, it's scary. I know I don't have to worry about dying in here, but his realness still gives me the creeps."

"He almost killed me, so of course I'm frightened, whether this thing is the real deal or not. The more I stare at this fake, the more deperate this situation seems. I'm going crazy right now wondering who's going to make the first move," Jenny said anxiously.

Everyone reacted when Suija started slowly rising into the air. Ms. Wakeman also got a little annoyed waiting for it to start, so she had Suija start first. He suddenly dashed in their direction. Axl first tried to shoot it with his two rapid-fire hand guns. He burst apart and fell into a puddle of water and traveled across the ground only about ten feet and formed an arm suddenly grabbing Melody's right ankle when she tried jumping away. He threw her into the trio of XJ5, X, and Vexus causing them to pile on top of each other. This all happened in about two seconds.

While Suija was reforming, without attempting to get up off of Vexus just yet, he pointed his buster at Suija and fired three normal shots while his back was turned. Both X and Vexus watched as Suija simply stepped to the side dodging the shots and continued charging after some of the others.

As Xand Vexus were getting up, X thought to himself "_My buster is too loud. Three shots gave him more than enough information to know how to dodge with no problem. That was two shots too many_."

To avoid confusion and wasting time, each of them being connected to the same system, they were all given the ability to instantly relay thoughts to each other they think is important. In actuality, only a vague representation of those words passed through X's mind to save time for himself because he already understood his own thoughts. When he sent the signal to the others, those thoughts were translated into complete sentences for them to understand. It's too bad they won't have that privilege during the real fight.

Everyone was suddenly surprised by Melody's sudden move. She charged Suija like an Olympic Games runner. Her intensity actually scared those who were about to attack Suija into spreading out away from her path. Suija turned to face her and put up his guard. At the last moment, Melody charged orange electricity around her fist and feet and began attacking wildly. Very quickly, her clothes and pieces of her body were being torn or smashed while failing at trying to land a single blow. It came to the point where she was about to connect with a kick to the side of his head, but he grabbed her ankle, the same one he grabbed before, pulled her whole body with him when he jumped backwards. He waited for her hand to touch the ground in an attempt to use its solidness to try another maneuver. At that very moment, he jumped forward while still holding onto her ankle, forcing her head to collide with the ground, but kept forcing his strength on her until everyone heard her neck break. He maneuvered in such a way to stand where he needed to then stomp her head into pieces. Jenny and a couple of others couldn't help but scream.

Suija suddenly assumed a neutral position and paused. Melody's body then reformed piece by piece.

"Oh my…I am so glad this is just a simulation. I almost forgot that," Jenny said frantically.

Melody looked at Jenny and said "I knew this was gonna happen, that you guys were gonna be overly cautious like you are in real life, that's why I charged him the way I did. This place does look very realistic. It damn near feels real too. Yeah, it's scary as hell. I just became very familiar with every piece of my head a moment ago, and the more we train against this guy is the more you guys are gonna know it too. We have to get used to dodging and defending ourselves against life ending attacks very quickly. This will probably be our only opportunity to do this. You Maverick Hunters used hologram simulations until now. You're used to knowing those holograms can't actually hurt you. It's different in here but just remember that he can't kill you for real in here."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not stupid or anything. I just need a minute to get into the rhythm of this. We just got started. I'm still getting used to treating this simulation as if it's the real thing. I'm a tad rusty too. When Sigma left the picture, real battles became rare. I often feel like the real reason I missed Suija the first time I swung my sword at him in the restaurant is because I'm rusty. Well…I'm about to find out if it was because he is really that fast," Zero said as he started swinging his saber around at high speed.

"The fact that he took me down so quickly bothers me though," Melody said as she started checking the calibration of her joints by performing certain stances she learned from different martial arts.

Everyone else finally started catching on and began warming up as well. It wasn't just Zero. Those with plenty of experience like Jenny and X, they were also rusty. Their time of relative peace was starting to make them a little sloppy. Vexus has had to resharpen her skills plenty of times throughout her long life. XJs 1-8, Killgore, and Melody are the ones really lacking in experience.

Ms. Wakeman pressed the button again and Suija returned to his stance, and then she said "Don't worry. I'll wait until you give me the signal this time."

"Actually, I was ready for him to come charging," XJ6 said with a confident tone.

Ms. Wakeman grinned and said "In that case…"

She pressed the button and watched everybody scramble to deal with Suija's sudden charge. Everyone else who was sitting around the large monitor just stared in awe at the intensity of the fight that was taking place.


	26. Chapter 26

**Very Important - Read the disclaimer update at the chapter 1 page to understand my absence and information about story element changes.**

**I know it's been a very long time since I last updated, and there is a very good reason for it, I assure you. I don't like changing elements of my stories, but this is too important for me to overlook. Please read the disclaimer update.**

**When you're finally done reading that, here's the newest chapter.  
**

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Most of the others could only spend a few hours or so training with the virtual Suija without needing rest. They don't feel physical fatigue like flesh beings do. It's the mental stress they had to deal with. It turns out that Jenny has experienced so much mental and emotional stress over the past few years that she finds it rather easy to keep going for several hours if she wants to.

Some would like to think that Jenny would be the one to endure the mental stress the longest, especially since she's putting so much effort into studying the universe around her, but it's not the case. Vexus can keep going for the longest periods of time because of her age. She's had two mellinea to train her mind. The Maverick Hunters even have trouble keeping up with Vexus because of this though they could physically outdo her easily. Jenny may be able to make the most progress more quickly that the others, but because Vexus can last longer than her, she stays only a few short steps behind Jenny.

So as far as mental training is concerned, Jenny and Vexus are at the top, and are practically rivals. This isn't to try and say that the Maverick Hunters can't possibly win against both Jenny and Vexus in the virtual world, but they'd be really pushed to the max to pull it off.

Misty personally sought out Grace on her own to try to convince her to train with her since neither of them can enter the virtual world. She found Grace about a mile from an old train yard in an open field. It was foggy and cloudy, and just a little chilly outside. She approached slowly so as not to surprise Grace or Angel and landed casually.

"I see you're not in your favorite dress, or a dress at all for that matter. I never thought I'd see you wearing workout clothes," Misty commented.

Grace paused for a moment, and then replied "And I…never thought I'd see…you looking for me. I heard you…attended our highschool a few…years ago, and I'm guessing…you never attended their…mandatory gym classes, otherwise you would recognize the shorts…and grey shirt. Strange; I actually kept this stuff around…after I graduated. I have a reason for it now."

"Believe it or not, I need to keep working out for this Suija business, and I'm assuming that's what you're doing also. Axl is connected to that game thing, and I'm also guessing you're not compatible, so you're here instead. I train best when I have company, so that's why I'm here, plus fight training is what I need and Silver Shell is in his usual ignoring the world unless Sheldon is around mood and you are the only suitable candidate, so…" Misty said awaiting a response.

Grace laughed a little bit at the comment on Silver Shell and then said "Truth be told; I also need someone…to teach me how to fight…better. Even Angel…is finally admitting that her techniques…are very sloppy. I…don't wanna give you that feeling…like I don't want your presence, but most…people avoid me most…of the time, so when you…showed up, I felt…kind of awkward about…it. But yes, if you are willing to…stay and teach me some things, I do want you here."

"I honestly expected you to be a lot more defensive, but it's good that you're letting more people in now. I remember doing that when I was a kid and I hated that lonely feeling. You actually seem a little excited to have some company. And yes, I'll try to teach you. Keep in mind I've never taught anyone my fighting style before, even back when I was with that team years ago. They were more than capable without my style. Anyway, I want to gauge you first. Try throwing one punch straight forward as fast and as hard as you can without transforming. Be as serious as you can be about it, that way I can tell a whole lot about you."

With a little bit of nervousness, Grace said "Okay."

She took a deep breath, imagined a target in front of her, and punched as if she were trying to hit something tangible.

A couple of seconds later, Misty said "There's the already expected things I need to mention. First, you're a whole lot more capable of more powerful and faster punches without a transformation. I can tell. What you just did had little emotional content and Jenny wouldn't have fallen to the ground the way she did when you knocked her down. She would've barely considered that punch a threat, even back then. You were pissed off when you attacked High-Max punching a hole in his chest. Plus, beyond the obvious, your structure has…issues. Your joints are out of proper alignment and not because of Angel being fused with your bones. It's not you particularly. Most of the food these companies feed your people is basically crap in a package. That's one of the reasons you see a lot of people walking around with their knees always bent towards each other. Food is one of many factors. A lot of people's genetics don't automatically focus on growing plenty of muscle mass around certain joints, like the knees, keeping them straight because no one is supposed to be fat to begin with. You have little body fat, so that's not your problem. I know I'm talking about knees a lot, but they are very important. But what your knees suffer from is calcium deposits from drinking too much milk and then not exercising enough to flush it out of your system properly. That's why when you punched just now I heard a slight crackling sound that most people wouldn't have been able to pick up on. That's how I know. You probably also felt stress on your shoulder when you punched because it's not aligned properly. I know it's a lot to hit you with so suddenly, but it's true, and it's better to tell you now instead of later. Why now? That's because I can help you to an extent. Let me see your right arm."

Misty walked beside Grace and slowly extended her arm stretching it out all the way. She slowly placed her left hand under Grace's arm on her rib cage while holding onto her forearm with her right hand.

After a moment of concentration, she said to a clearly nervous Grace and Angel "I'm not going to lie to you two. This will hurt, but only a little, about as much as stubbing your toe. This won't be sudden. I'm going to pace myself inching your shoulder into the right placement. This will help you later in life. It's a good thing I'm doing this while you're still young. Are you ready?"

Grace took a deep breath, and then said "I…am ready, but before you…start, are you sure you know what…you're doing with human joints?"

Misty grinned a little and then replied "I study anatomy a lot, believe it or not. It's necessary if you want to be an effective fighter. In fighting, it's about the weak points. I can't do everything with human bodies, but your shoulder is not a problem for me."

She slowly started moving the shoulder until she felt Grace's body tense up from the little bit of pain she was feeling. That let her know she was on the right track. Within about another minute or so, she finally finished, and Grace no longer felt pain, but she did feel a little soreness. Misty inspected her arm until she realized it was a successful effort, and then she finally let go.

Angel finally spoke up saying "I kind of felt like there was something wrong with that joint, but I was afraid to do anything with it. Know I know how to realign it if it goes out of place again. Thank you by the way."

"You're welcome. Speaking of anatomy, Angel, you might want to read up on it yourself. Since you can change shape the way you do, you might be able to remove all kinds of impurities like those calcium deposits in ways Grace could never do alone," Misty replied.

"You make that sound so easy, but I think I can if I go about it slowly. For some reason, it's easier to add things to my body than it is to remove them. That thing about me dropping all that extra weight from Heatnix's body; it wasn't as easy as you might think. I'll take your advice though. Now that I'm thinking about it, I never had time to actually observe your punches. It was hard to pay attention to what everyone else was doing when we dealt with Sigma," Angel pointed out.

"Oh yeah! You made a good point just now. I could barely keep myself alive out there. We were all very fortunate to have made it out of that alive," Misty said just before punching a few times herself.

With each punch, Grace nor Angel could see the point where the punch stopped and began retracting. The speed needed for these punches caused a small amount of wind to blow.

"If I was using all my functions, I would've seen those punches clearly. Those looked like blurs," Angel said before getting into a fighting stance.

"So you wanna a quick test to see how you fare. That is fine with me," Misty said as she got into a stance of her own.

By the end of Misty's sentence, Grace's muscles had grown in size slightly to try to more or less match hers. Misty made the first move. She charged aiming at Grace's face with a flying kick with her left foot pointing straight up attempting to connect with her heel. Grace jumped and began kicking with her left leg aiming at Misty's right rib cage. Misty saw what was coming and used the same leg to suddenly twist her body and kick Grace's leg back in the direction it came from, and with her right leg, she kneed Grace in her face. Even though Grace blocked with the inside of her left hand, she still felt most of the force with her own knuckles digging into her face.

When they landed, Grace took a moment to regain her composure, and then said "I need better reaction…time. You did that…so easily."

As Misty bent forward investigating her left knee and ankle with her hands, she replied "My moves were pretty easy to perform, but the shock I felt from the leg you were kicking with is making me worried about my own joints. They're okay, but I did get a little nervous. When it comes to striking, your legs are probably your strongest weapons for sure. Actually learning to use your legs in battle is a lot more difficult than those guys on TV make it seem. As it just so happens, most people in the whole universe can't actually fly like we can. Fighting in the middle of the air is something I've never been met with real competition. I've fought in the air several times, but most, including me, don't really know what we're doing. You know I am talking about martial arts, right?"

As soon as Misty stood back up, Grace replied "When we…fought Sigma, most of our attacks were either punches, or high-end energy attacks. Though any punch can be…considered as being in the realm of martial arts, we focused more…on evasion and the quickest…easiest strongest attacks we…thought we could manage…within the short time provided: usually about a couple of seconds. I got what you…were saying well enough."

When Misty didn't respond immediately, Grace became a little nervous, and then asked "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, everything's fine. You got what I was trying to say, so that's not the problem. It's just nice to be able to hold an intelligent conversation with a young female adult on this planet," Misty explained.

Grace grinned slightly, and said "Oh yeah…that."

"I can tell this is coming from you and not from Angel, which makes this even better. Most human girls in both these worlds still act and talk like ten-year-olds by the time they reach your age. It's not like I'm so much better myself. I didn't even start to mature until my major incident, but come on. How come only a few girls our age can find better things to talk about than boys and fashion and other such meaningless things? Boys aren't meaningless; it's the way young girls usually talk about them that's meaningless," Misty commented.

With the same grin, Grace asked "You do know we'll…never totally grow…out of that, right? If we were…constantly in a war zone, then maybe we might change. I might not be a normal girl, but I'm…still a girl. Boys will be boys…and girls will…be girls."

Misty sighed and finally said "I know I'm maturing and finding out the things that actually matter in life, but where did our lives go? What happened? Life was never easy, but I want it to go back to the way it used to be sometimes. I want shopping for some new trendy outfit to be both the highlight of my day and the biggest thing I need to worry about again. I bet this is how those Krust girls are feeling right now."

Angel then spoke up saying "I bet that's how Vexus is feeling right now. I bet this is how a whole lot of people are feeling right now. I mentioned Vexus to make a point. You know all those bad guys Jenny defeated? You know all those people you were hired to either defeat or eliminate? Yes, another name for ninja is shinobi or assassin. I have no reason to believe you haven't needed to wash more than just a little blood out of your clothes in your lifetime. I bet every one of those people are wondering where the good old days went right now. I'm not trying to bash you for your past. I'm just saddened about the fact that not everyone can have their way in this life. Most of those 'bad guys' started out as kids who likely would've been good little boys and girls all their lives had they not been mistreated, neglected, or deprived. Why do the 'good guys' get to have their way or live at least somewhat normal lives?"

With a bit of a surprised tone, Misty said "I am different. The old Misty probably would've caused a scene with what you said about me. I felt nearly nothing from that one. Anyway, you make a good point though. You know what I was thinking most of the time when we fought Sigma? Why won't you just leave us alone, dude? I would rather have spent my energy doing something else than trying to kill him. The problem we're usually faced with with guys like him is I don't want to be killed. I don't want everyone else to be killed. His persistence pushed us into self-defense mode. The only way we could see to solve the problem was to eliminate him. I would rather kill guys like him than to return to my shinobi days. You guessed right, and it couldn't have been too hard to figure that out about me considering my display of heartless logic that day I was about to kill Jenny even though I never once said it directly. The saddest part is most of those hired hits I did; I don't even know if those were good guys or bad guys. My specialty is totally silent infiltration in pitch black darkness, so hits like that is what I was mostly hired for. If I asked whether the person I was hired to kill was a good guy or not, I wouldn't be hired, and I wouldn't be able to afford food. To this day I never once knew what kind of people I was hired to kill. I only knew the names and faces. I could probably retrace my steps and try to find out, but I would likely get caught, and then an assassin will likely come after me. Oh, it's rough out there, all right. That's a life I'd rather just leave behind anyway. That X guy actually wants to be the one to fix all of what you're talking about. He wants everyone to have a piece of the pie so they won't lash out against the world like murderous crybabys. Talk about being ambitious. It's a worthwhile goal, but I'd end up dead real soon trying to do that. All we can really do about that problem is the best we can."

"I wasn't so enthusiastic about X's goal at first, and I'm still not willing to make that kind of sacrifice, but I am more and more over time feeling where he is coming from. Well anyway, what do you think would be good for our first training exercise?" Angel asked.

"One major thing we all ought to work on is stopping ourselves in mid air. I'll explain. I was launched far away from the battle with Sigma by that huge laser. In that case, I wouldn't have survived without Axl jumping in the way, but if I was strong enough to survive it, but still launched through the air, I could still have died if let's say my head smashed into a huge rock. If I could focus my flight energy to force me to stop suddenly, I wouldn't have to worry about whether or not the soft snow is the only thing that would break my fall," Misty explained.

A few seconds later, Grace finally replied "Not so fast. What I mean is…don't stop yourself too suddenly in the…air. If a person is driving a car at…about seventy or so miles…per hour, if they come…to a sudden stop, the best shock…absorbers in the world wouldn't…stop your internal organs from being…ruined. That's why when a car's…breaks are engaged, the entire vehicle continues to slide across…the road for about a hundred feet. It's a physics issue. If the car didn't slide, it would either…be flattened or torn…apart. So unless we become…extremely tough, we should take it…one step at a time."

With surprise on her face, Misty said "I had a feeling I'd learn a thing or two from you. I always had the impression you were smart. It's great you thought of that or I might have killed myself just in the middle of training."

Grace couldn't help but grin a little at that compliment.

"Speaking of being in mid-air, I'm curious to know how fast you can actually fly," Misty said.

"I can fly, but…I'm afraid to see how fast…I can really go. Even Angel is afraid of…that. We're not really…used to being in the…air. I did all that with Sigma…because I had to. For me…that crazy event went by so fast…it was like a blur. What I need is…training in a lot of areas," Grace replied.

She decided to slowly lift herself off the ground up to about ten feet in the air, and then explained "Both me…and Angel are pretty comfortable…at about this height. Not much…higher and we become…very nervous."

"That's because you know you probably won't hurt yourself much at that height. And that's true: you probably won't. Even I know that if you bulk up your muscles like you're able to, just the fact that you're really high up is still nerve racking. You know what adults on my planet do to get kids used to heights? They get their kids used to the idea of falling. It sounds like parents on my planet have unrealistic expectations of their kids, doesn't it? A lot of your parents do it too. They buy trampolines. Sometimes they even make them: those who know how. They are really huge and strong trampolines of course. I'm not sure how you're gonna get one like that. Oh! Actually; I know something you can do. You might be limited at energy manipulation, but if you learn how to control your flame output, you can use that to your advantage. A quick downwards burst can help break your fall. Just try not to light a whole forest on fire if you can help it," Misty explained.

"Sounds so easy too, but *sigh;* it's really not. We have a lot of work to do," Angel stated.


End file.
